A New Side of New York
by oppisum
Summary: During summer break Blaine invites Kurt along on a road trip to the city that never sleeps. But when the two teenagers alone in New York City have to share a hotel room, things threaten to get interesting in the city where romance meets fantasy.
1. Plans

**A New Side of New York**

**Summary: With the arrival of summer comes a new perspective on an old adventure: New York. Blaine invites Kurt along on a road trip to the city that never sleeps to his sister on Broadway. But with two dating teenagers alone in New York City having to share a hotel room, what could go wrong, right? Right?**

**A/N: I've wanted to write this for about three months, and I thought now was the perfect time considering my forthcoming trip to NYC. Once more, I apologize for an unrecognizable word here and there; poor spell check can't even discern some of my dyslexic spellings.**

**As always, I'm incredibly grateful for reviews and constructive criticism.**

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><p>Chapter 1<p>

Plans

"So, as you've made a point of holding over my head, I get out of school this Thursday."

"Uh-huh," Kurt agreed gloatingly. McKinley had gotten out a week earlier than Dalton, a fact that Kurt found amusing to taunt Blaine with. "You're point being?"

"Well," Blaine took a sip of his Monday afternoon coffee before continuing, "I was wondering If you had any plans for this Friday and, oh I don't know, the entire week following."

"I was just going to start helping my dad around the shop for some extra cash, but that's really flexible. Why?" Turning his head inquisitively to one side, the blue eyed boy set his own coffee back down on the small table between them.

Sunlight streamed into the ever-busy coffee shop through a nearby window, casting a light onto Kurt that in Blaine's opinion made him look like the son of an angel, not a hulking mechanic.

"I've told you about my sister, right?"

"Just a little, but yes." Kurt could vividly remember the few stories Blaine had told him about his older sister Renee Anderson. The one involving the broom, the theater department, and the salmon was particularly memorable.

"We've been close ever for longer than I can remember, especially since I told her I was gay in eighth grade. She was the first person I ever came out to."

Kurt loved when Blaine trusted him enough to tell him about his past and thought this was all very nice, but he didn't see what any of this had to do with his summer schedule. He decided waiting patiently for Blaine to get to the point was the best course of action.

"Well, she called me yesterday to tell me that – drum roll, please," Deciding to play along, Kurt gently drummed on the table. "She landed a role in _Catch Me If You Can_ on Broadway! It's just an ensemble part, but _still_!"

"Wow! Make sure to tell her I said congratulations."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about; I was wondering if you'd like to tell her yourself. She got me two tickets to the show, and I was hoping you'd go with me to see it. She's dying to meet you, by the way. Now, I know you just got back from Nationals in New York, but I thought maybe you'd like to see the city in a different way and spend a bit more time there. If you don't want to I'll completely underst-"

"Are you kidding! That sounds amazing!"

Blaine's face broke into a dazzling smile that momentarily made Kurt's mind go blank.

But then reality hit Kurt like a slushy to the face.

"Blaine, I don't have enough money for a plane ticket or a hotel room."

"I was actually planning to drive and just find long-term parking outside the city. I know it's a ten and a half hour drive, but getting there is half the fun, right?" He gave a lopsided grin. "I figured we could leave Thursday after my Pre-Cal exam, split the drive between two days, and just stop for the night at whatever exit is closest when we get too tired to drive," said Blaine before considering his statement and laughing. "Because, you know, cheap motels on the side of the interstate won't sound suspicious _at all_ when we ask your father about this." Blaine stopped laughing long enough to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively before losing it again.

Laughing along with him, Kurt tried to wipe the blush from his face. Why did he have to blush like some innocent maiden every time his boyfriend voiced even the mildest of innuendo? "Ok, well, that still doesn't solve the problem of rooms once we get to New York, because I know for a fact that rooms in NYC are a heck of a lot more expensive than a Motel Six in Pennsylvania."

"Oh, I guess I never told you," Blaine smiled sheepishly through his chagrin and awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck – a nervous habit of his Kurt had noticed. "My parents are major share holders of the Kempton Hotels, so as long as we give them fair warning, which I have, we can get rooms for a really good price."

Blaine chose this part of the explanation to conveniently omit part of the information. He'd tried to get two rooms, he really had, but he'd waited too late. By the time he called, his favorite of the Kempton Hotels, the Muse, was completely booked aside from one double room. It wasn't like he wanted to hide the fact that they would have to share a room from Kurt. He just knew Kurt far too well by this point. Burt would inevitably ask about the room arrangements, and if he knew, Kurt would feel guilty if he didn't tell his father the truth. Blaine wasn't planning anything; he just wanted to increase the odds of Burt actually letting Kurt go. Besides, Blaine highly doubted that Kurt would object to sharing a room with him.

"So, this could really happen?" Kurt asked in astonishment as he leaned back in his chair. He couldn't believe the planning His boyfriend had already put into this trip. Without warning, his head was filled with visions of Blaine and himself holding hands in Time Square, eating Italian food at a restaurant known only to locals, and kissing in the quiet of Central Park at midnight. Then, completely unbidden, a more sensual picture of the two of them alone in the seclusion and privacy of one of the Kempton's notoriously nice rooms rose to the surface.

"As long as your dad says yes." Blaine smooth voice made Kurt Jump.

"Oh, well, there that dream goes."

"Don't give up so easily. Besides, if we need, I can get my sister to give him a call; adult supervision might make him feel better. Though I hardly think Ren qualifies as an adult, and I wouldn't bet that she'll do anything close to supervise us, but at least it'll make your dad feel better. Not that he had any reason to worry," he added hurriedly before Kurt had a chance to get the wrong idea about why Blaine was doing this.

"Of course not!" Somehow, Kurt could tell by Blaine's expression that that statement had come out in a strange tone of voice. Then again, how could it not with some of the images still bouncing around in Kurt's head.

Blaine yawned and stretched as he said, "So, I feel obligated to warn you about my sister."

"Warn me?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "She's crazy. Not go-out-and-murder-a-pedestrian type crazy, just… You know how they say the best actors are all a bit crazy?"

Kurt nodded.

"Well, she's that kind of crazy – eccentric with a lot of… personality."

"Come on Blaine, I'm dating _you_. You have a _Harry Potter_ obsession that you refuse to talk about, but if anyone ever does get you talking about it, you start sorting them into houses. I think I'm used to personality by now."

"Please, she makes me look downright boring."

"_Really_," he said with raided eyebrows, "Well, either way we still have to get all of this past my dad, which, let's face it, is never going to happen."

The dark haired boy shrugged as he stood to throw away his empty coffee cup. "I don't think you're giving him enough credit. He may be strict, but he trusts you." He offered Kurt his arm as they exited the Lima Bean.

Kurt smiled happily as he linked arms with his boyfriend, but decided not to text Mercedes, who was on a two week trip to see her rather unpleasant great grandmother in Georgia; no need to get her hopes up when his dad was probably going pop his fantasies of running off to the big apple with his boyfriend like an old birthday balloon.

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Your Car or Mine?

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: I survived my Latin final! So, in celebration, here's a short chapter before I head off to NYC myself. Hopefully I'll be able to get chapter three up before I leave. And yes, I did have to give Blaine a red Mini convertible. My family loves those cars, and I fell in love with the red convertible the dealership lent us while ours was in the shop. Oh, and the family of three thing? Yeah, done that. Also, I don't know what type of car Kurt drove in the first season, and I don't feel like digging through Glee DVDs at 1 AM because Google doesn't know. I remember initially thinking that it was a Cadillac Escalade, so please forgive me if I'm wrong.**

**Please review if you get a chance!**

Chapter 2

Your Car or Mine?

Burt Hummel looked skeptically over the top of his newspaper. "Say that again; I think I misunderstood that question. You're talking like you're tryin' to out gab an auctioneer."

With a deep breath, Kurt tried to repeat his question at a more reasonable pace. "I wanted to know if I could go to New York with Blaine. His sister Renee got a role in a Broadway play and offered Blaine and me tickets to the show. Blaine's family can get us rooms at a really nice hotel less than a block from Time Square for a really good price. If you say yes, the plan is to split the drive between two days and stay in the city for a week before coming back," he rattled off, still all in one breath.

"New York City?"

Kurt nodded.

"With Blaine?"

Another nod.

"Your boyfriend."

By this point all the nodding just made him look like he had a twitch.

"Alone. No adult supervision." Burt's stoic expression gave nothing away.

"I think we'll be spending quite a bit of time with his sister. She's twenty-two, I think." No need to add Blaine's note that she hardly counted as a credible adult. "Blaine can get her to give you a call, if you need."

"Kurt… I don't know about this." The elder Hummel had no clue how to deal with this request. On one hand, there was his son practically begging for something he really wanted to do, with that excited, blissful look he always seemed to wear when he talked about his boyfriend. That was the other hand; his boyfriend. Burt would be reluctant to let his son go to New York without an adult period, much less with his boyfriend.

It wasn't that he didn't trust Kurt. Actually, he knew his son was very responsible and not likely to do anything too… inappropriate –or at least anything that he would regret later on. And from the look of things, Blaine was fairly trustworthy himself. Burt knew – or at least hoped - that they wouldn't normally do anything until they were both ready for it. Problem was, the thought of the pair alone in a metropolis, free from paranoia of being caught, scared him. He was worried that they might get caught up in the heat of the moment and let things get too far, further than one if not both of them were ready for.

"Come on Dad! Please, please, please, please?" Kurt clasped his hands and put on the puppy dog look.

Burt heaved a great sigh. "Okay. Just, for the love of all that's good in this world, be careful. You're the only blood son I've got, and I can't replace you." He paused thoughtfully. "And make sure to tell Blaine that I said that, too. He'd better drive carefully in that little red go-cart of his."

"Thank you so much, Dad! And what makes you think we'll be taking Blaine's car? Two people barely fit in there, never mind our luggage."

Not wanting to interrupt his son's great mood, Burt Just shrugged. From what he knew of Blaine Anderson and that Mini Cooper of his, Burt thought that it would take an act of God to convince the boy to drive for ten-and-a-half hours in anything else.

As Kurt made to leave the room, his father stopped him with a hand on the shoulder. "Kurt, just… don't do anything you'll regret, got me."

With a small, awkward smile, Kurt said, "I won't, Dad; don't worry," before running quickly upstairs, whipping out his phone as he went.

The first text was, of course, sent to Blaine to tell him the news. The second was a hastey message to Mercedes reading, "'ur never going 2 believe this! call me ASAP!"

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><p>"Blaine, we are <em>not <em>taking your car!" The shrill sound of Kurt Hummel's _bitch-you-crazy_ voice broke through the humid air of the Tuesday afternoon.

"And why not, may I ask?"

"Because it's so…" He gestured wildly in an attempt to convey his sheer frustration. "Tiny! I swear, Mickey Mouse could barely fit in that thing."

Blaine snorted and bit back a facetious comment about size not mattering. "That's not a viable excuse. I've seen a family of three fit a dog and a week's worth of luggage in a Mini before. Granted, it took some work, but they managed it."

"But it's… I… Can't we just take the Escalade?" Kurt did his best to put on his pleading-puppy-dog look.

"Kurt, if we take your car, we might as well just buy plane tickets, because your car gets all the gas mileage of a tank. It'll cost us small fortunes in gas to get from here to New York," Blaine said, raiding his eyebrows and returning the puppy eyes.

Seeing the argument as a lost cause, Kurt gave a resigned growl of frustration. Blaine had him on the gas thing; there was no doubt about that.

"Fine, but you have to try to figure out how to fit my clothes into that thing without wrinkling them."

With a triumphant grin, Blaine kissed Kurt on the cheek and said, "Come on. Let's go get some coffee." He paused just outside the doors of the shop. "Wait, first I need a picture."

"Huh? What for?"

The curly haired boy shrugged. "Don't know. Ren just asked me to send her a picture of you standing against a solid background. I just don't question it at this point." He pulled out a small digital camera and moved Kurt to stand in front of the cream colored cinderblock wall. Kurt posed with a cheeky smirk, and Blaine couldn't decide who loved who more: the camera or Kurt.

**Thanks for reading! Reviews are very much appreciated.**

**And I promise next chapter will be better than this one.**


	3. Road Trip

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: As promised, here's the next chapter. Oh, and Westerville and Lima really are around forty-five minutes apart; I didn't just pull that out of a hat. It always amuses me how they choose to conveniently ignore that in the show. **

**Thank you so much for the reviews!**

Chapter 3

Road Trip

Kurt spent the entire next day packing and unpacking his things until everything fit just as he wanted it. Much to his annoyance, Mercedes still had yet to text him back, and by the time lunch rolled around on Thursday he was starting to worry. With a shake of his head, he tried to push those thoughts aside. Mercedes could take care of herself, he reasoned. She had probably just mouthed off to that insufferable step aunt of hers and gotten her phone taken away. Kurt still shook with laughter at the very thought of the last family reunion Mercedes had been forced to go to.

According to the story she had come back to school with, Mercedes had been regaling some of her relatives with the tales of she and Kurt's fabulous adventures when her Aunt Hanna had interjected that it was unwise of her to keep such company as an openly and unremorsefully gay boy.

As anyone who knew the strong willed diva could guess, that went over _really _well_._ Mercedes had reportedly jumped up from her chair, finger pointing and hand on her hip, and shouted that she would rather spend all her time with a gay guy than a hateful old bag who wouldn't know real love if it bit her on her anorexic ass. As a result, Mercedes had gotten her phone taken away for a week – she said that this showed how much her parents disliked Hanna; normally a stunt like that would mean a month, _minimum_ – but she said it was SO worth it just to see her Uncle Jessie fist pumping and Cousin Stella cheering in the background.

Kurt anxiously checked the clock on his bedside table again.

11:17 AM

With a groaned of frustration, he flopped back onto his plush bed. Blaine's last exam ended at eleven, but he still had to turn in his textbooks and make sure that everything was in order with his dorm room. All of his packing and moving aside from a few essentials had been completed a week ago, so all he really had to do was just sign some paperwork and grab his one box of remaining stuff. After that he would drive the forty-five minutes to his family's house just outside Lima, change clothes, put his things in the car, and pick up Kurt.

The earliest possible time Blaine could be at his house was one-thirty. Kurt chose that moment to revert back to being three years old. He kicked and flailed his limbs in frustration; it might look stupid, but it did make him feel better to some degree. The irrational paranoia that his dad would change his mind about letting him go kept nagging at his thoughts. Kurt knew it wouldn't happen, but that didn't stop the thought from bugging him.

With a sigh, Kurt got up and walked to the vanity mirror. Fixing his now-ruined hair seemed like an okay way to spend the remaining time, even if it would just get messed up all over again when Blaine insisted on riding with the top down.

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><p>"Like I said, you have to figure out how to make all of our stuff fit. It's not too late to take the Escalade, you know." Kurt and Blaine stood outside the Hummel-Hudson house just after one-thirty trying to fit Kurt's suitcase into Blaine's red Mini Cooper Convertible. Kurt's plaid suitcase and an extra tote of what Blaine assumed to be hair and skin care products rested next to the car as the boys stared into the already-full trunk.<p>

Burt hung back near the front door watching; he just had to see this. If there was one thing Burt Hummel knew, it was that Blaine _would _find a way to make the stuff fit, never mind the fact that Kurt could fit in his own suitcase. The _**how**_ would be the amusing part.

"Watch and learn, Kurt. Watch and learn." Blaine removed his own slightly-smaller, black suitcase before folding down the back seats. How did they even fit back seats in that thing? Burt wondered silently.

Blaine then put both suitcases plus the smaller bag back into the car. The grudging look on Kurt's face told Burt that he wasn't altogether pleased that their things had actually fit, gas mileage or not.

"Well, we should probably get on the road. We have to at least make it well into Pennsylvania by dark." Blaine said with a smirk that clearly screamed 'I told you so.'

"You boys just drive carefully," Burt said stepping forward, his eyes noting the little red _S _next to the word Cooper. From what experience he had with working on Minis, he knew that the sport models could really book it.

"Love you, dad," Kurt said as he hugged his father.

"I love you too, Son. Remember what I said, _be careful._" The severe look that accompanied this statement made both Kurt and Blaine blush.

Blaine considered trying to say something along the lines of 'we're not going to have sex, you know,' but guessed that a statement like that would just make things even more awkward and might not actually reassure his boyfriend's father.

Kurt and Blaine got into the car, and, just as Kurt had expected, the top was down. Before they pulled out of the driveway, Blaine said, "Feel free to control the music," and indicated an iPod already hooked up to the car. As they headed in the direction of the eastbound interstate, Kurt thumbed through the first few songs until he found one he liked, _Save Me San Francisco _by Train.

_I've been high, I've been low  
>I've been yes and I've been oh, hell no<br>I've been rock 'n' roll and disco  
>Won't you save me San Francisco?<em>

Blaine grinned madly as Kurt bobbed his head along with the song. **They were free!** At that thought, he couldn't help but turn up the volume and keep beat on the steering wheel.

**Thanks for reading!**

**If you have any suggestions on how to improve the story or my writing, please tell me. That's part of why I like writing fanfiction: You can get immediate feedback from your readers.**

**Next Chapter: Kurt and Blaine stop for the night in middle of nowhere Pennsylvania only to be caught be a thunderstorm. There will actually be romance in this chapter (and lots of it), I promise. It'll be much longer than the first three.**


	4. Cheap Motels Aren't That Suspicious

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Ah finally, we get some romance! Also, be thankful you're not reading the original draft of this. I just tried to spell moved, mooved. So, this chapter and the next one were originally supposed to be one chapter, but I had to split it up because of my trip.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed!**

Chapter 4

Because Cheap Motels Aren't That Suspicious, Right?

Kurt was humming idly along with whatever Lady Gaga song was playing when he just happened to look up at the incredibly hard to miss speedometer located in the center of the dash. "Blaine, slow down!" he cried in a in a voice several octaves above normal.

"Huh?" Blaine said and then looked over at the speedometer.

105mph

"Oh, shit! Sorry, Kurt." He quickly let off the gas and dropped down to about 75mph. "If it makes you feel any better, we probably weren't actually going over one-hundred. The speed gets a bit off the faster you go because of the way British cars calculate the changes from kilometers-per-hour to miles-per-hour."

"No, no. It really doesn't make me feel any better. Do you always drive like this on the interstate?"

"Like what?"

"I'll take that as a yes. Like someone is chasing you with a blow torch." Kurt shook his head incredulously. "How many tickets have you gotten, like ninety-seven?"

"You'll be happy to know that the only ticket I've gotten was for a parking violation. I never even noticed that it was a fire lane. Excuse me for needing something from Walgreens and not wanting to be late for our first official date."

"I would have waited, you know. What was so important from Walgreens, anyhow?" Kurt said with a laugh.

"Breath mints," Blain said simply, still looking straight ahead.

Kurt laughed even harder as Blaine chuckled lightly. "I love you," the chestnut-haired boy said affectionately.

"I love you, too," Blaine replied, chancing a sidelong glance at his passenger.

To top the moment off, right then _Teenage Dream _started playing. Blaine reached over to turn up the radio just as Kurt said, "You know, this is practically out song. When it first came out, I didn't really like it because it reminded me of everything I felt like I'd never have, but then everything changed. You took my hand and sang T_eenage Dream _to me. Well, more at me, but you get my point."

Kurt sang enthusiastically as they flew down the practically empty stretch of interstate, leaning slightly towards his boyfriend and giving him a flirtatious look.

"_Before you met me  
>I was alright but things<br>Were kinda heavy  
>You brought me to life"<em>

Blaine joined in with a goofy grin. He leaned toward Kurt so that their shoulders touched as they sang but kept his eyes firmly on the road.

"_Now every February  
>You'll be my Valentine, Valentine<em>

Let's go all the way tonight  
>No regrets, just love<br>We can dance, until we die  
>You and I, will be young forever"<p>

Then, without warning, Blaine moved his knees to hold the steering wheel steady and threw his arms up to the sky with a whoop of laughter as the song kept playing.

_You make me feel  
>Like I'm livin' a<br>Teenage dream  
>The way you turn me on<br>I can't sleep  
>Let's run away and<br>Don't ever look back,  
>Don't ever look back<em>

_My heart stops_  
><em>When you look at me<em>  
><em>Just one touch<em>  
><em>Now baby I believe<em>  
><em>This is real<em>  
><em>So take a chance and<em>  
><em>Don't ever look back,<em>  
><em>Don't ever look back<em>

"Blaine!" cried Kurt, his hands coming up to cover his mouth."Hands! On wheel! Now!"

Still with that goofy grin, the curly haired boy moved one hand back to the wheel and tousled Kurt's already ruffled hair with the other one.

Kurt just rolled his eyes. "Hands on the wheel for the rest of the drive, or I'm gonna' walk there."

Blaine knew it was an empty threat but still didn't want to push his luck, so he just kept quiet apart from singing along with the Scissor Sisters song that came on next.

It would really freak his boyfriend out to know that Ren had taught him how to do that.

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><p>The rest of the day was spent on light conversation, car karaoke, and arguments with Thelma, Blaine's temperamental GPS who refused to do anything the easy way. When Kurt inquired as to why the GPS was named Thelma, Blaine answered that he honestly expected it to lead him over a cliff one of these days.<p>

Around eight as the summer sun was beginning to set, the boys decided to find a place to stop just outside of their halfway point of Clearfield, Pennsylvania. According to the heavily bearded man they talked to at a nearby gas station, the Paradise Inn was the most affordable hotel around. So, that's how they ended up pulling into the parking lot of a shabby pink motel with a sign reading:

_Pa dise In_

_V cancy_

Kurt could only assume that the missing letters spelled out _Paradise Inn_ – _Vacancy_. He and Blaine just sat there for a second looking dumbfounded, neither moving. "It's no surprise that they have Vacancies…" said Kurt raising his eyebrows.

"We should've known, what with a name like Paradise Inn. In my travel experience, the more lavish the name, the more run down it is." He shook his head at a loss for what to do. "So, what'll it be; try to find the Holiday Inn, or brave it here?"

"Don't hold me responsible if this turns out to be a really bad idea, but I think we should just stay here tonight. After five hours on the road, I really want a shower, and I don't exactly care where it comes from at this point," Kurt said with a tired smile.

"Well then, let's go see if we can get a room at the Ritz," said Blaine, patting his boyfriend in the knee.

Kurt clambered out of the small car and quickly followed Blaine towards the office to get rooms. Upon their entrance, a little bell above the door clanked gloomily. The front office was a fairly small room with worn red carpet the texture of sandpaper and square windows decorated with floral-print, sun-faded curtains and a generous amount of spider webs. The well dressed young girl who sat at the battered front desk looked like she would be more at home in an issue of _Teen Vogue _than in the shabby lobby.

The girl, Alex, by her name tag, was hunched over what Blaine recognized as a Japanese comic book, her green and pink streaked blond hair falling in front of her face as she blew a bubble with her gum. At the sound of the bell, she looked up from the poorly illuminated desk with a board look that quickly transformed into enthusiasm at the sight of Blaine. "Hello! Welcome to the Paradise Inn," she said with a flirtatious look.

"Good evening," said Blaine with one of his most charming smiles. "I was hoping to see if there are any vacancies, and if so, how much one night would cost."

"Umm, y-yes, there are," she stuttered, fingers nervously playing with a lock of pink hair. "I-it's $85 per night."

"Ah."

Wanting a second opinion, Blaine glanced at Kurt who just said, "As long as it's got a working shower."

Alex's eyes widened. For the first time she noticed just how close the pair of cute boys were standing, their shoulders almost touching. "One room?" she asked, her voice all but squeaking with excitement.

Both boys nodded, the taller one blushing.

She resisted the urge to squeal. The taller one was really cute, but the shorter, black-haired one was just plain _hot_. They must be a couple, she thought, because the hot one could pass for straight, but there was no way the cute one was. After checking her computer, Alex said, "Ok, that'll be $90.27 with tax."

When the dark-haired one handed her an American Express card, she deflated slightly. There was no way these two were much older than her, and usually teens just in for a one night stand paid with cash so their parents couldn't track it. Dang. Plus, to top it off, as she ran the card the hot one said, "Should we bring in our bags, or just the cloths we need for tonight and tomorrow." Alex didn't listen for a reply. Bags. That meant it wasn't just a hook up. Maybe they were just friends on a trip.

"And could we perhaps get the room with the least spiders," the cute one said with a smile.

Alex knew it was a reasonable request; there was no way she would say a night here, even with the employee discount. (Why did they have and employee discount, anyhow? There were five of them, for God's sake, and all of them knew WAY too much about this place to ever have the urge to stay here.) "Sure thing. Here you go," She handed them a brass key with a large plastic 5 attached to it. "Room five generally gets the least complaints."

"Thanks. Have a good night," said the hot one with a small wave before taking the other boy's hand. At that point Alex really did squeal. None of the other gay guys who came to the Paradise Inn made nearly as cute of a couple as this pair, she thought as she blew another bubble.

* * *

><p>"What was that about?" Kurt asked as he heaved his suitcase out of the back of the car. They had decided to just bring their stuff inside.<p>

"Heck if I know." Blaine grabbed his own suitcase and shut the trunk before leading the way to room five. The door gave a grumpy creak as it opened and allowed the outside lights to illuminate the pitch-black room. Kurt and Blaine just stared in comically like they were waiting for something from a horror movie to pop out.

"I think this is the part where the giant serpent that kills with a glance slithers out to greet the protagonists," Blain said sarcastically.

"I don't think there're any monsters, just a man-eating dust bunny or three." Kurt took the first step inside and flicked on the light. The room wasn't _too _bad if you just got past the smell of cats; it wasn't as bad as Finn's room, at least. The rough carpet matched that of the front office and seriously clashed with the horrendous comforters on the pair of twin beds. A TV that had to be older than either of them sitting on a rickety chest of drawers was reflected in a cracked, gold-framed mirror hung between the beds. Kurt took four quick strides to the slightly ajar bathroom door at the far side of the room. "There's a shower. I'm good." He walked back to Blaine and said, "It's going to rain tonight. Possibly storm."

"How can you tell?" Blaine asked as he sat down on one of the beds.

"The smell of the sky," Kurt said simply. "I love thunder storms, so I can always tell when one's coming. There's no better smell in the world than the sky right before a big storm." Blushing slightly, he added. "Well, except maybe you." He loved the way Blaine's skin smelled, like Polo Ralph Lauren cologne number four, Redkin men's hair gel, Listerine, and something that was entirely Blaine and Blaine alone. "I think that bed just exhaled a cloud of dust, by the way."

With a soft chuckle, Blaine laced his fingers with Kurt's and tugged his boyfriend down to sit on the bed next to him. That was about the point that Kurt's heart rate doubled. Blaine reached up to cup Kurt's cheek, his tan skin standing out in sharp contrast against the blush-tinged complexion of Kurt's cream colored cheek. He kissed Kurt softly before resting their foreheads together and saying, "I really do love you, you know."

"I really love you too." This time it was Kurt who kissed the other boy. He inhaled deeply, drinking in his boyfriend's scent, and moved closer to wrap his arms around Blaine's neck. Tentatively, he let tongue deepen the kiss. Surprised but not at all displeased, Blaine ran one hand through Kurt's hair and let the other rest at his lower back. Somewhere along the lines, the top three buttons of Blaine's shirt magically came undone as they kissed, their tongues dancing around each other.

With more willpower than he knew he had, Blaine whispered in Kurt's ear, "I think you should probably go take that shower now."

"Yeah. Shower, right." Kurt blinked a few times in a futile attempt to clear his head. Blaine had to resist the urge to laugh at the way Kurt's normally near-neat hair now stuck out at odd angles. Kurt got up, but before he had a chance to move too far away from the bed, Blaine grabbed his wrist.

"And I love the way you smell, too," he said, placing a ghost of a kiss on Kurt's hand.

Kurt let his fingertips trace over Blaine's sharp jaw line then turned to get his night clothed from his bag. Yes, a shower sounded good. A _cold_ shower.

**Thanks for reading!**

**If you get a chance, please leave a review.**

**Ugg. I felt so stupid while typing Alex's thoughts, but I hope the humor was worth it.**


	5. Text Messages and Thunderstorms

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Updated might me a bit slower for the next week. It all depends on how much time I have to write while in New York. So, am I the only one who finds Blaine's jerky mannerisms in the show really endearing, and has anyone else ever noticed those random pauses he takes when he talks? I mean, they're kind of hard to miss. I tried to write those in at some of the more romantic parts, but I'm not sure if it came across right.**

**Thanks for the reviews!**

Chapter 5

Text Messages and Thunderstorms

While Blaine showered, Kurt lay on one top of one of the atrocious comfitures scrolling idly through the apps on his phone. He'd already called his dad to tell him where they were for the night and was considering trying to text Mercedes again. Maybe she had just gotten distracted and forgotten to text him back. He flicked to the camera app and carefully lined up the picture so that it caught his sock-covered feet on the edge of the bed as well as both he and Blaine's suitcases lying open on the floor. 'spending night in clearfield pa. Blaine is in shower now' he sent. Abruptly, the observation that his best friend had once made echoed through his head. "Have you ever notice that the only thing you capitalize when you text is Blaine's name?"

After a minute his phone lit up with a new message: 'whow whow whow! why the hell are you in a random hotel in Pennsylvania with ur boyfriend? see, this is what happens when i cant check my phone for 4 days. the whole world goes bat shit crazy.'

Kurt stared at the message in confusion until a second message came. 'NYC! OMG, BOY! srry i havnt texted u back b4 now. i forgot my charger and only bought a new one an hour ago. i just read ur first message. SO?'

'so what, M?'

'SO whats happened? ur alone in a hotel with ur boyfriend. don't play dumb with me, white boy.'

'NOTHING! that is NOT why we're going on this trip'

'SRYSLY, NOTHING? K, ur too much of a good boy for ur own good…'

'ok, well not quite /nothing/ but nothing like i'm sure ur thinking'

'let me guess, Blaine is 2 much of a dapper frickn' gentleman 2 push any boundaries and ur too much of a good boy 2 push boundaries urself.'

'OK, time for a serious change of subject. hows ur aunt satan?'

'Ms. Conservative got caught cheating on her husband with the pool boy.'

'i didn't know puck worked in georgia too. lol srry but i have 2 go. i just heard the water turn off. bye M, love ya.'

'k. bye. 3 u 2.'

Kurt put his phone on the bedside table just as the bathroom door opened to reveal Blaine in an old North Face t-shirt and faded, gray shorts. This made Kurt feel slightly overdressed in his light-purple, silk pajama pants and matching button-up top. Blaine's clothes, however, were not what caught Kurt's attention. His boyfriend's normally well-controlled hair had been freed of its gelled prison and now hung in loose curls, and his hypnotic hazel eyes were framed a pair of plastic-rimmed, black glasses that Kurt had never seen before.

"I didn't know you wore glasses."

"That's kind of the point of contacts," Blaine said with a cheeky grin. "Even when I can't wear contacts, I usually don't wear my glasses. My eyes aren't that bad, and I always feel like I look stupid in them."

"I think you look cute. You should wear them more often." Kurt walked to where Blaine stood and fingered a ring of hair. "I like your hair like this, too." Without realizing it, Kurt had moved closer until they were less than six inches apart. It was that awkward thing where you're looking right next to someone's eyes but not into them, but they're looking into yours. When he did finally zone back in and make eye contact, he was startled to realize that Blaine was blushing. It took a lot to make Blaine blush.

Kurt staggered back and stuttered, "W-we should probably go ahead and go to sleep. Early start in the morning, you know."

"Y-ye," Blaine agreed, but took a step closer.

And then they were kissing… again.

Kurt felt his knees go weak. It wasn't like they hadn't kissed dozens of times before, but somehow the situation just made the whole thing seem more intense. They were making out alone in a hotel, for goodness sake! It would be enough to fluster any mildly modest and careful person, and if there was one thing Kurt was, it was careful. Ok, well maybe fashionable before careful, but _still._ Kurt didn't have a problem with it – he trusted Blaine not to push things too far – but the new situation just made him a bit nervous. Good nervous, though, not ok-now-jump-off-the-cliff nervous.

Okay, wow. He was rambling even in his thoughts. Why did he always have to do that? Every time Blaine kissed him, he either way over thought things or abandoned all thought process completely.

At that point, he just chose to abandon rational thought and focus on Blaine's hands on his waist and the taste of his boyfriend's tongue against his. Boyfriend. He still couldn't believe it, even as they stood in the middle of a shabby hotel room tangled like a pair of octopi.

Ok, over thinking again.

Finally, Blaine pulled back and said, "Right, early morning tomorrow." This time it was he who shook his head and blinked to clear his thoughts as he backed up.

Blaine moved to straighten up his suitcase. How had he made this much of a mess just getting out his pajamas and toothbrush? Oh, right. He had been in a hurry to get in the shower after Kurt had come out wearing a pair of insanely – for lack of a better word – _cute _pajamas and had kept fidgeting with the still-wet hair plastered to his forehead.

With a sigh, he grabbed a wad of clothes that he had unceremoniously thrown onto the floor and shoved it back into his suitcase. "Holy crap!" he yelled, skittering backwards until his back was against the foot of the bed.

"What?" Kurt asked, turning from the mirror where he stood applying one of his many face creams.

"Spider! Big spider." Blaine shouted, too terrified to move.

Kurt walked quickly over and stared at the spider incredulously. "Blaine, it's a banana spider."

"I don't care what kind it is or if its name is Bob; that's one big fucking spider!"

Kurt let out a snort of laughter and picked up one of those cheap notepads they leave in hotel rooms. He knew for a fact that Blaine made a point not to swear very much; it just made him sound uneducated, he said. "It's just little bug. Calm down."

Blaine clambered onto the bed as Kurt put the pad in front of the yellow spider and poked its back gingerly. "There's nothing LITTLE about that stinkin' thing! Kurt; it's a quarter size of your hand!"

"And it'll get a lot bigger once it grows up. This one's just a baby." Kurt opened the door, walked down the sidewalk, and shook the spider into a bush a good distance from the room – it would be best for both the spider and Blaine if they didn't have to come face to face again before he and Blaine left. "There you go, Bob."

"Is it gone?" was Blaine's first question as Kurt reentered their room.

Kurt rolled his eyes. "No, I thought I'd bring it back as a pet," he said sarcastically. "Yes, Blaine. It's gone. You can get off the bed now."

"Thank God. I didn't picture you as the type to go around picking up spiders."

"Hey, I can go back and get it from that bush you wanted to." Kurt gave a slight smile and continued, "Blaine, I don't completely fit the stereotype, you know."

"Kurt, I didn't mean – I'm sorry – I didn't mean to imply anyth-"

Kurt put a finger to curly-haired boy's lips to quiet him then pulled him into a hug. "It's fine; I know you didn't. Let's just finish getting ready for bed."

As each got into their separate beds, a low rumble could be heard in the distance as the storm clouds rolled in. _Oh, Gaga, _thought Kurt. He had really hoped that storm would hold off until morning, and not just because it would mean Blaine would have to leave the top up on the car. Kurt and thunderstorms had a love-hate relationship; he loved them, but only in the daylight.

"Ready for me to turn off the light?" Blaine's voice broke through his thoughts.

"Yep. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Kurt. Sleep well."

_That's likely_, thought Kurt sarcastically, but he just said, "You too."

* * *

><p>One particularly loud gust of wind accompanied by a sharp clap of thunder woke Blaine from his sleep with a start. He raised his head blearily from his pillow to see Kurt sitting bolt upright in bed hugging one of his knees to his chest. "It's just a storm with high winds," he said with a slight tremble to his voice. "No tornados or floods. I checked."<p>

"That's good." Blaine put on his glasses groggily. "Are you okay? You don't look so well." He really didn't. Even with just the faint streetlight streaming in through the rain-splattered window to see by, Blaine could see that Kurt had gone pale - much paler than normal, that is. His normally porcelain skin had been drained of all color apart from a faint green tinge.

"I've been better."

"Thought you said you liked storms?" Blaine said thickly, still trying to wake up.

"I do, we just have a bit of a love-hate relationship" he said in a breathy voice before flinching at a clap of thunder. "They kind of scare the living crap out of me. Like I said love-hate relationship."  
>Blaine could see the sharp jolt that ran through Kurt's body at the next bolt of lightning and hear - if he wasn't very much mistaken - a slight whimper.<p>

Blaine's heart lurched with a pang of sorrow at the sight of how absolutely terrified Kurt was. Not comically overreacting type of fear like him with the spider (in his defense, that was one big-ass spider), but a limb-shaking terror over something that couldn't just be squished. Blaine moved without conscious thought, smoothly sliding into bed next to the frightened boy. He wrapped a comforting arm around Kurt's shoulders and leaned back against the headboard. After a moment's hesitation, he repositioned Kurt so that the taller boy was curled into his side and his head rested under Blaine's chin.

"Next time just wake me up. I won't laugh at you."

"But I laughed at you for the spider thing," Kurt said, feeling guilty.

"That was different. In your defense, I must have looked really funny. Honestly, you just look kind of pitiful."

"Still, I'm sorry for laughing." He gave a bitter chuckle. "It's a pathetic paradox, isn't it? I think storms are beautiful, but lightning petrifies me."

"No it's not," Blaine said softly. "Try thinking of it this way: without the lightning there would be no applause."

"What?"

"The thunder's clapping for you, Kurt." A ghost of his normal smile lit his concerned face.

"You're so cheesy," Kurt snuggled closer and added, "But I guess that's part of why I love you so much."

"I love you too, beautiful."

Kurt blushed at the use of the pet name. It might be undeniably cheesy and sappy, but he liked it.

Under most circumstances, the situation might have been a bit awkward, but for once there wasn't sexual tension, just (mostly) platonic comfort. After a while, the storm blew its self out, but neither boy moved other than to lie down. Kurt was asleep first, Blaine's arms around him in a comforting grip. Blaine soon let himself fall asleep too, deciding not to move back to his own bed. It was by far the best four hours of sleep either of them had had for a very long time.

**Thanks for reading!**

**Next chapter: New York!**


	6. Sleeping Arrangements

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Whoo Hoo! New York for both me and he characters. This entire chapter was written in a hotel room while I was unable to sleep thanks to jetlag with Lady GaGa's **_**Monster **_**playing in a loop.**

**Sorry it took so long to update. I promise I haven't forgotten, and I will defiantly finish.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed.**

Chapter 6

Sleeping Arrangements

"Blaine, I love your voice, but I swear, one more line about beer on a wall or tires on a bus, and I'm walking."

"Alright, alright. Just find something I can sing along with that won't bother you. I can drive for another three hours, just not without something to sing."

Kurt and Blaine were stopped at a toll road booth roughly two hours into their drive.

"Here, I've got money," Kurt said, reaching for his wallet.

"Nah, don't worry about it; I've got it."

"But you got the hotel last night _and _gas this morning!" Kurt protested.

"Really, I've got it."

Okay, Kurt had to admit that that was something about Blaine that bothered him: He always insisted on paying for everything. Kurt knew that he wasn't trying to show off or treat Kurt like a girl, but it still just _bothered _him. Money was never an issue with Blaine's family. Not only was his businessman father a share holder for one of the nicest lines of hotels in the country, but his mom was also a corporate lawyer for some really big name companies, like Verizon and LG type big. It had hit Kurt the night before that money probably wasn't really the reason Blaine had opted to drive, quality time was. Kurt liked to think that he knew his knew his boyfriend pretty well after two and a half months of dating and over five months before that of being friends, and he could therefore safely assume that the little bit more money it would have cost for them to fly instead of drive wouldn't have been an issue.

Kurt had only been to his boyfriend's house once, but once had been enough to make him realize that Blaine was one of those people who had money but just didn't act like it. The last time Kurt took his father to the Allen County Regional Medical Center for a checkup, he had noticed an area labeled _Ellen Rose Anderson Pediatric Ward_. He had tried to brush it off as a coincidence, but it just wouldn't stop nagging at him until he finally broke down and Blaine what his mom's middle name was. Kurt had almost choked on his bagel when the answer was in fact Rose.

* * *

><p>It didn't occur to Kurt just how much planning Blaine had actually put into their trip until he left his beloved car in the care of a long term facility about forty-five minutes outside the city just after lunch and called to confirm a per-paid pick up service to take them to their hotel. While they waited for their shuttle to arrive, Blaine said, "Umm, Kurt, I have to tell you something."<p>

Kurt looked up to see Blaine giving him a sheepish look. "What's up?"

"I promise I wasn't trying to lie to you by not telling you, it's just that if I told you before, you would've felt obligated to tell your dad when he asked."

Kurt raised his eyebrows.

"I tried to get us two rooms, I really did, but all they had left was one double room. It's a good sized room, though, so it's not like we're going to be crammed together for a week, but we'll have to share a room this week."

"Oh," Kurt said simply. "That's ok. I mean, we made it work last night." He struggled to keep his voice even and not let it show just how excited he was about the prospect of spending a week in a room with Blaine.

Blaine let out an audible sigh of relief. He'd been worried that Kurt would think he had… anterior motives for putting them in the same room. Two months into the relationship they still had a lot of lines and boundaries to work out, and he didn't want to seem like he was trying to push what hazily outlined boundaries they did have.

* * *

><p>It didn't matter that he had been in New York less than three weeks before; Kurt still practically had his nose pressed to the glass at they rode to their hotel. Having Blaine with him was like having your own personal, very-handsome tour guide. He kept up a running commentary of what happened where when and who was often seen eating where with whom. Finally, Kurt thought to ask. "Blaine, how many times have you been to New York, exactly?"<p>

"Um," He thought for a second. "Ten time, if I'm not mistaken. No, wait, eleven if you count the time Ren made me walk around Midtown blindfolded."

"Eleven time!"

"Yeah, our parents used to take Ren and me, and I've come a couple times a year ever since Ren got into NYU. She's been in their theater school on and off for the past two years. She keeps threatening to drop out completely, but she just can't shake the upper class American mindset of 'if you don't graduate college, you're a failure.' I think it'd be good if she got her degree, but I also think she should do things her way, not our parent's, especially now that she has a steady job she likes. She doesn't rely on them for anything now, but she still refuses to tell them she's bi." Blaine shook his head and let out what Kurt assumed was a growl of frustration.

Kurt didn't say anything, but he realized, not for the first time, that there must be some serious tensions lurking in the Anderson family's closet, no pun intended. At that point, however, all reasonable brain computation was halted by the flash of color and lights that was Time Square as they road through. Posters for _Wicked, Billy Elliot, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Rock of Ages, The Lion King, The Adam's Family, Avenue Q, Phantom of the Opera, _and_ Pricilla Queen of the Desert_ lined the building. Kurt's mouth was practically watering at the sheer number of Broadway Musicals. Vendors selling a variety of tourist-oriented goods stood on every corner, and yellow taxies filled Time Square to its brim. It didn't matter that Kurt had been there less three weeks before; the sight still took his breath away.

They turned down 46th street and pulled up to a very elegant looking hotel less than a block from Time Square. Blaine thanked and tipped their driver as a bellhop opened their car door. Blaine greeted the man enthusiastically as he took their luggage. Kurt followed in his boyfriend's wake with a stunned look as they crossed the incredibly beautiful, modern-style lobby of black leather, wood, and tile. "A seven night reservation under the name Anderson," Blaine said, surprising Kurt by not taking up his normal polite tone. Kurt thought it was rather rude of him to not wait for the man to finish writing whatever he was bent over hurriedly scribbling onto a notepad. That was, until the man looked up with an obviously forced look of politeness that quickly transformed into a huge grin at the sight of Blaine's smirking face.

"Mr. Anderson, it's great to see you again!"

"Mark, don't call me Mr. Anderson. It always makes me think of either my dad or that guy from the Matrix."

"Well then, _Blaine_, I take it you're here to see Ren. She was amazing; I went to see the show last week."

"Yep, she got us tickets, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to show Kurt here the city. He was here for the Show Choir National a few weeks back, but he only got to stay for three days." Blaine pulled Kurt forward to stand directly in front of the counter.

Mark was a good-looking man in his mid-thirties with short blond hair and laugh lines. Kurt, if forced to guess, would probably guess that Mark was gay, but Kurt really didn't like making guesses like that without proof; it had gotten him into trouble far too many times for comfort.

"Well, Blaine, are you going to properly introduce us?"

"Kurt, this is Mark Spanning. Mark, this is my boyfriend Kurt Hummel."

Mark's grin widened as he said, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Hummel."

"Just Kurt, please," said Kurt modestly. It really _did _make him feel like his dad.

"If you two get a chance before you leave, we need to have lunch together at Sophie's like old times. Ok, so," said Mark, typing on his computer, "You've already paid for your room. It's on the seventeenth floor." He paused before adding, "A single." He gave Blaine a what-the-fuck-are-you-thinking-your-parents-will-kill-you look.

"Um, wait, WHAT?" Blaine looked like someone had just hit him over the head with something very heavy.

"It say so right here." Mark turned the screen so Blaine could see. "What was it supposed to be?"

"A double," Blaine said firmly.

"Ummm, I'll check to see if there're any open."

More typing.

"I'm really sorry, but that's all there is." Mark started to run his hands through his hair anxiously but stopped when he remembered how much gel it had taken to make it look right – a very familiar motion that didn't go unnoticed by Kurt, even in his state of shock.

Blaine looked questioningly at Kurt, his hand pressed to his temple in a way that always meant he was stressed. He was at a loss for what to do. They could always try to get rooms at another hotel, but nothing in anything close to a good neighborhood would have rooms this late on. He could sleep on the floor if he had to, but he honestly didn't want to.

Kurt bit his lip nervously in a way that Blaine would have found adorable if he hadn't been so distracted by trying to find a solution. "I think we can figure out a way to make it work. I mean, if you want to," Kurt said with a tentative glance at his boyfriend.

Blaine's eyes widened with surprise. Did Kurt realize what it sounded like he was suggesting?

"Okay, in that case, here are your keys." Mark passed them a pair of green, plastic cards labeled Kimpton Hotels. "Your bags will be brought to your room. Have a good stay. Blaine, it was good to see you again. I was serious about lunch, by the way. And also," Mark leaned a little further over the desk towards Blaine and gave him a meaningful look, "Be careful."

Blaine literally banged his head on the stone receptionist desk. Did everyone have to think he was bringing Kurt to New York to get in his pants? Couldn't they just understand that he didn't have intentions like that? "That's not why we're here," growled Blaine as he clutched the desk on either side of his head.

Mark didn't say anything, but just raised his eyebrows and nodded his head to one side in a gesture that seemed to say, 'I don't think you would, but you never know.'

Looking between the other two in confusion, Kurt tried to discern the relationship between them. He didn't think they were related, but a mere passing acquaintance wouldn't say 'be careful' like _that._

"Come on; let's go meet out stuff," said Blaine, briefly squeezing Kurt's hand before leading him toward a pair of elevators hidden behind a wall of wine and a fish tank. As they got on an elevator, he added, "Kurt, I'm so sorry. I can sleep on the floor. I really didn't think something like this would happen."

"Really, it's fine, Blaine. Like I said, we'll figure it out." Kurt searched for a change of topic, because they had seventeen floors to go, and elevators were by their very nature awkward, much less with the prospect of sharing a room with one bed for the next week hanging in the air. "So, how do you know Mark so well?"

"When I was younger my dad spent quite a bit of time in New York on business. Since mom traveled a lot for her job, he took Ren and me with him some times. One time in the summer before my freshman year, Ren was on a trip with one of her friends, so it was just me and dad. I mostly just stayed around the hotel because I wasn't old enough to go very far on my own. I started to notice that that this other guy who didn't work at the hotel would always spend lunch with Mark at Sophie's Café down the street where I would go for lunch too. Mark knew me from the hotel and invited me to sit with them one day because he felt bad that I was on my own all the time. Come to find out, the other guy was his husband Jeff. That week, my eating lunch with them became a regular thing. They were the first openly gay guys I'd ever really talked to." Blaine got out his keycard to open their door.

"One day Jeff couldn't make it, and the conversation turned more… _personal_. I broke down and started crying like a four-year-old in the middle of the café. I think I made Mark leery of ever having kids because he had no clue what to do with a bawling fourteen-year-old. He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder and asked what was wrong. That's how Mark became the second person to find out that I'm gay."

"Oh. Wow, a lot better than my guess of really distant cousins twice removed."

Kurt really didn't know what else to say to that story, but he was saved by Blaine saying, "Here we go, room 1705," as he opened the sleek, black door.

**Thanks for reading!**

**I'm sorry it took so long for this update, but they should speed up now because I'm going to be home for about a week. I promise that the next chapter won't be so choppy.**

**Sorry for any grammar mistakes. This was typed late at night on multiple different days after multiple different Broadway shows. I'm so tired that the screen is blurring.**


	7. RenWren

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: *Sarcastically*This chapter brought to you by coffee, Red Bull, and Lady Gaga at 2 AM. But seriously, I just write better late at night. I always finish chapters the night before they're published, but I have to wait until the next morning to proof them. Though my writing is better at night, my grammar isn't.**

**So, in this chapter I tried to explain how I have some of Kurt and Blaine's thoughts running because I realized that in chapter 6 I didn't explain Blaine's thoughts well enough, so he came over as really out of character.**

**YAY! Thanks for all the reviews!**

Chapter 7

Ren/Wren

The door swung open to reveal a room with a modern black and white décor much like that of Kurt's old basement room. As promised, one queen bed occupied the room. At its foot was a small black and white checked chase. On either side of the bed stood a pair of identical nightstands, lamps, and silver-framed mirrors. The headboard was a tan, padded plaque surrounded by a black frame. Surprisingly, the bathroom was very spacious with a large shower of opaque, heavily-frosted glass. After looking at everything quickly, Kurt turned to Blaine and said, "Wow. I knew this was a really good hotel, but I wasn't expecting this. This is amazing! It's much better decorated than the one we stayed at for Nationals."

"I know, right! And the bed is so soft that you never want to get up." With that, Blaine plopped down onto the down comforter and moved his arms like he was making a snow angel.

Kurt sat down next him with a bit more grace before leaning back to lay next to his boyfriend, their feet hanging over the edge. He snuggled closer into Blaine's side and let himself sink further into the magnificently soft bed. Yes, thought Kurt, they could defiantly make the whole one-bed thing work. He really didn't understand why Blaine was making such a big deal out of it, anyhow. Personally, Kurt thought that it would be nice to share a bed when one of them wasn't completely wasted courtesy of Miss Rachel Berry - Kurt was still proud that he and Finn had managed to get a severely hammered Blaine up the stairs that night without waking their parents. Besides, they had made it work last night when they were both at least sober, right? Granted, he had been ready to pee his pants over that stupid storm, but _still_.

But that was where Blaine's hang up was. Last night Kurt had been scared senseless, and there had been very little romance other than the whole supportive-boyfriend thing. In the nights to come, there would be room; it was that simple. Blaine had meant it when he said he didn't know what he was doing. As of yet, every romantic thing he'd done over the past two and a half months had either been planned out in pain-staking detail or had been so spur of the moment that he hadn't had time to consider how it might go wrong. It was in the space in between, those instances where he had time to think about how things could get messed up, that he tended to screw things up himself.

You wouldn't think Blaine was the type to get nervous about things like this, but he was. Oh, sure, he could be sexy. He could be _really_ sexy, if he did say so himself, but just not when it counted. There was a fine line between sexy and awkward, at least for him. He'd never been in a real relationship before, - well, unless you count Lucy Smith in second grade for three days, but that was just because she always had Gushers in her lunch and would always share with her boyfriend of the week - so he really didn't want to make a mistake. Then again, it wasn't like Kurt had any clue either, but sometimes that just made things more difficult because neither of them really knew where their boundaries lay until they hit one.

Kurt turned to face his boyfriend. "Blaine, I think you're over thinking something again. You know that gas-pain look you said I got when I tried to act sexy? Well, that's the same look you get when you over think things." He bit his lip in an attempt to keep a straight face.

Blaine, however, burst into a fit of laughter. Kurt was right; he was over thinking things. They could cross all those bridges when they came to them. He surprised Kurt by pulling him into his arms in a kind of laying-down bear hug and whispering into the crook of his neck between bubbles of laughter, "I know I've said this a lot in the past two weeks, but I love you. A lot," he added as an afterthought.

Before Kurt had a chance to reply, three light knocks echoed through the room. "That would be our bags," said Blaine sitting up and pulling Kurt with him. He quickly crossed the room and opened the door with a charming smile, barely giving Kurt time to compose himself into a less flustered expression. He still didn't have time to wipe the blush off his face.

The amicable bellhop's eyes quickly darted between the rumpled bed and the blushing boy, and he bit back a smile. Teenagers. Sometimes he missed being that age, but he would never turn back the clock. He could still remember way too many drawbacks…

"Here you go," he said. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Nope, that was it. Thank you." Blaine handed him a tip.

"Have a good day, Mr. Anderson."

"You too."

As the door closed, Blaine said to Kurt, "I've always tried to tip people who help ever since I heard a particularly broke waitress in the café saying that teenagers were always horrible tippers. For some reason, I always want to be the exception."

"You're breaking one stereotype after another, Mr. Anderson."

"Not you too! I always feel like a grumpy, middle-aged business man in a suite when people call me that."

"Remind me to tell your dad that you called him grumpy and middle-aged.," Kurt teased with a smirk.

"Oh, he wouldn't mind being called grumpy because he knows it's true. The middle-aged part, on the other hand, that he's still in denial about."

Kurt laughed easily. He was having one of his high-on-life moments. Why shouldn't he be? He was in the greatest city on earth with the most amazing guy he had ever met. Before he let himself get even more blissed out, Kurt moved his suitcase to an out-of-the-way corner and unzipped it.

"Uh, Kurt, don't start unpacking just yet. We have one more thing to accomplish before we settle in."

"Oh?"

"You have to meet my sister." The words hung in the air in a foreboding fashion that made it clear that this was much more of an adventure than it sounded.

"You say that like it's our death sentence."

"Well, you never know with Ren."

"So, I have to ask before I have the chance to embarrassed myself in front of her-"

"Very hard to do."

"-but why do you call her Wren?"

"Huh?" Blaine didn't understand the question.

"You keep calling her Wren, and I was wondering why her nickname is a bird."

Blaine started laughing again. Hello, communication fail. "I'm not calling her wren; I'm calling her Ren."

Kurt just looked even more confused.

Blaine sighed; stupid homophones. "I call her Ren, R-E-N, short for Renee; not wren, W-R-E-N, like the bird."

Kurt put his hands over his face in embarrassment. To think, he had gotten onto his boyfriend for over thinking things just a few minutes before. Wow, he felt really stupid. Laughing once more, Blaine patted him on the shoulder sympathetically and said, "It's okay. We all have these days. You know, the ones where we over think everything."

* * *

><p>"BLAAAAAINE!"<p>

That was the only warning they had before a mass of curly, raven hair jumped – literally _jumped_ – on Blaine. The short girl wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and her legs around his waist. Onlookers scattered around the lightly populated 5th Avenue café spared a single glace for the scene before going back to their newspapers, coffee, and iPods. This was New York City; they'd seen stranger.

"It's good to see you too, sis," Blaine said with a laugh while he let one arm loop around her waist and his other hand rest on the back of her head. Apparently, thought Kurt, this was a normal form of greeting between the two.

Blaine gingerly set her down and held her at arm's length by her shoulders so he could get a good look at her. Renee Anderson wore large sunglasses that obscured what Blaine knew to be a pair of bright, hazel eyes. She wore simple but obviously designer in origin black slacks and a beaded gray tank top. Her hands were adorned with many rings of odd shapes and sizes, and her wrists were obscured by a plethora colorful metal bangles and a light green Fossil watch. There was a striped feather woven into her hair and a clump of multi-colored feathers for earrings. "Wow, Ren, get into a fight with a tropical bird or something?"

"Or something. You can borrow them, if you like," she said indicating the earrings. "I keep telling you that you should get your ears pierced."

"Yeah, not that gay yet. Maybe in college."

"Speaking of which-" She spun to face Kurt. "-you must be the boyfriend."

"He has a name," Blaine said in an irritated voice.

"And I'm sure you would have told me if he was a mute, so I assume he can speak for himself," she said with her hands on her hips, bangles clinking together metallically.

"I'm Kurt, not just 'the boyfriend,'" Kurt said sharply, practically puffing up like an angry cat.

Ren looked him up and down a couple times before saying, "Sassy with good fashion sense. I like him." And with that the flung her arms around his neck.

Kurt gasped in response and, unsure of what to do, awkwardly patted her on the back. She was short, only coming up to about his chin if you didn't count the poof of familiar, curly hair. Ren was very beautiful. Even Kurt could tell that. She had the female version of Blaine's gorgeous appearance. They had the same vaguely Eurasian look and curly, black hair. She had the same sharp facial features and a strong brow of her brother, just presented in a slightly softer, more feminine way.

"Ren…" Blaine half-pleaded half-whined in an exasperated tone.

She pulled away from Kurt and glared at her brother. "What? I'm sure he's used to it by now. Last time I checked, I wasn't the only touchy-feely one between us. Or has that changed over the past year?" The last part was _very _sarcastic.

Come to think of it, thought Kurt, she was right. Blaine really was a touchy-feely kind of guy. Even long before they dated, Kurt could remember the casual touches, hugs, and hands on the shoulders that Blain always used around his friends. Kurt could even remember a couple tackle-hugs of the kind that Ren had given to Blaine after a successful Per-Cal midterm.

"Come on; let's get some lunch." She grabbed both of them by the wrist and dragged them to the front counter. Kurt stared at the menu for a moment, but Blaine didn't bother. He knew what was coming.

"I'll have the number fi-" started Kurt, but Ren cut him off.

"He'll have the number three. I'll take the number seven, and that one-" She jerked her thumb at Blaine. "-wants the number five."

Kurt started to open his mouth to protest, but Blaine whispered, "Just go with it."

As they got their food and moved to sit at a nearby table Ren said, "You'll like what I got for you better."

"Sorry, but I think I know my own taste very well and can order for myself. I'm not five." He looked to Blaine for some reassurance, but he just shrugged.

"She does this a lot. Ren has this bizarre sixth sense for what food people will like best."

With the first bite of his sandwich, Kurt's eyes widened, and he said, "Oh my God, that's amazing."

Ren smirked. "I told you."

Still not wanting to be wrong about his own taste in food Kurt asked Blaine, "Can I have a bite of yours just to try it?" when Ren got up to go to the bathroom.

"Sure," Blaine said pushing his plastic tray to Kurt who carefully took a bite of the sandwich.

"Damn it."

"What?"

"She was right; I do like mine better."

**Thanks for reading!**

**A/N: Wow, going back and reading this the next morning, I think Red Bull did more of the writing than I did last night.**


	8. Bad Influence

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Here's the next chapter, but I'm spending the next week in Virginia, so I don't know how my updates will be. Sorry it's so short. And I promise I won't let me OC's rule the story. Ren will just be here on and off. (Just how on and how off will be determined by the feedback I get about her)**

**Thank you for the reviews!**

Chapter 8

Bad Influence

Ren glanced at the line to the checkout of the café for the fourth time in a half hour. The three had long since finished eating and were now just talking about any number of trivial things. "Hey Blaine, if you'll go get them, I'll pay for cheesecake for all three of us."

"Sounds like a good deal to me." Blaine took the twenty she handed him and made his way to the massive line. If Kurt didn't know any better, he would say that she had intentionally waited until the line was at its longest.

Ren watched him go with knowing eyes. Now that she had taken the sunglasses off, Kurt found her gaze… bizarre, to say the least. It could shift from being cheerful and lively to piercing and unnerving in the span of only a couple of seconds. Kurt thought there was a lot more hiding behind that Cheshire Cat grin than just a biting sense of humor.

"Sorry, Kurt, but I had to talk to you without Blaine around for a minute, and that was the only way I knew to get you alone." The memory of a song sparked in Kurt's mind.

"Why?" he asked in a slow, careful voice. This seemed like the type of girl who would tell him he was a wizard or something mysterious like that if this was a fantasy book.

"Kurt, from the way Blaine talks, I'm sure he's gotten the 'you hurt him, you die' talk from lots of people who want to protect you, but I doubt you've gotten one about him because our dad sure as hell wouldn't give it to you. So, here it goes: Kurt Hummel, you seem like a good guy, maybe a bit overenthusiastic-"

Kurt thought _that _was the pot calling the kettle black.

"-but a good guy. I don't think you would, but if you hurt Blaine I will personally see to it that, well, have you ever seen _Valentine's Day_?"

"Of course."

"Think of what Jennifer Garner threatened Patrick Dempsey with in the restaurant when she found out he was married. That'll be child's play compared to what I do to you if you knowingly hurt him. If it's unknowing I'll only make you a little less familiar with some of your more well-likes anatomy."

It should be illegal to threaten anyone in that cheerful of a voice, thought Kurt. He gulped audibly.

"Do you _intend_ to hurt him?"

Kurt shook his head frantically and Ren laughed genuinely.

"Then you have nothing to worry about. Chill out."

Blaine's sister was insane, that was all there was for it. She tells him to chill out not even a minute after threatening him with a punishment worse than death.

"Renee, I would never intentionally hurt him. I… I love him."

"I know you do. It's in your eyes, both you and his. And it's Ren, not Renee. The only thing I want calling me Renee is a playbill."

"What're you two talking about?" Blaine asked in a suspicious voice as he set three pieces of cheesecake down in front of them.

"Just how great Jennifer Garner was in _Valentine's Day_." She looked up with him with a charming grin. Kurt thought that it must run in the family.

"Eric Dane was my favorite," Blaine said as he took a bight of his cheesecake.

"You just liked it because he played a gay football player who kept playing even after he came out."

"That, plus he and Bradley Cooper had a happy ending, and you know I'm a sucker for happy endings."

"Trust me, I've known that since the first time you saw _Pretty Woman _when you were eight. And speaking of things you weren't old enough to do-" She laid something – two somethings – on the table between them and held them in place with one painted fingernail. "I've made some friends in… odd places since I moved here, and thought you might want these. Especially considering you're too good to get them yourselves. One condition, though: If you get your asses arrested, hurt anyone including yourselves, or do anything stupider than normal, I swear I'll kill you both myself."

Blaine looked down at what she had placed on the table. "Ren," he started in a slow, warning voice, "Those aren't what I think they are, are they?"

Kurt glanced down and was surprised to see his own face staring back at him from an Ohio driver's license. Funny, considering unless Ren was a very accomplished pickpocket – which really wouldn't surprise him at this point – his driver's license was still tucked safely in his wallet.

"As long you think they're a pair of fake IDs, then yes, they are what you think."

"So that's why you wanted Kurt's picture with a neutral background. Fake IDs. God Ren you're a really bad influence on me, I hope you know that."

She just shrugged. "Oh, and Kurt, just make sure it's Blaine showing his ID if at all possible. You can barely pass for eighteen much less twenty-one. In the right light Blaine can pass for twenty-four."

Speechless, Kurt sat back in his chair. Fake IDs, psychotic sisters, one bed, and it was only Friday. This was going to be a great week.

**Thanks for reading!**

**So, if you haven't seen **_**Valentine's Day, **_**you have to go watch it. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.**

**Once again, sorry it was so short.**

**Next chapter: The first night.**


	9. The First Night

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update. I didn't realize I would be without internet for the most part. But no worries, I'm home now and will continue to update regularly. Also, I posted another of my Burt perspective Klaine stories. **

**Thanks for all of your patients and the reviews!**

Chapter 9

**The First Night**

(Friday night)

"So, your sister," stated Kurt, sitting he sat down on the bed and crossing his legs at the knees.

"Yeah, my sister," Blaine shook his head as he unzipped his suitcase.

"She's a bit of a loose cannon."

"Calling he a loose cannon, my dear, doesn't even begin to cover it." Kurt's lips twitched at the use of the pet name and a slight blush crept into Blaine's cheeks as he realized what he'd inadvertently said. "A loose cannon with fireworks tied to it, doused in gasoline, and covered in rainbow feathers would be a better description."

There was a pause as Blaine gingerly shuffled through his hastily re-folded cloths. Looking for spiders, Kurt guessed, but didn't call him on it.

"Do you want to take a shower first?"

Blaine glanced up from where he knelt by his suitcase to the table where Kurt already had his pajamas neatly stacked. "Nah, you go ahead. I still have to get my stuff together, and considering how much of a mess my suitcase is, that may take a while."

Kurt didn't need to be told twice. He loved New York City, but he always felt like he needed a shower if he so much as set foot outside his hotel room.

Blaine watched his boyfriend walk away with some amusement. Wow, did Kurt know his hips swayed like that when he walked? More importantly, did he know how insanely sexy it was? Blaine had noticed it before, but it was far more pronounced from this angle. He craned his neck and balanced precariously so he could see Kurt around the bed. The shorter boy stared in amazement as Kurt shimmied – SHIMMIED, for goodness sake – when he walked through the bathroom door. He was HOT. Blaine felt a little spark of pride at the thought that Kurt was his boyfriend. The bathroom door had just closed when Blaine lost his balance and toppled over, collapsing into a heap of silent laughter and curls. The socks he had been holding flew into the air and landed on his head with a barely audible _thump_.

* * *

><p>As ran his hands through this soapy hair, Blaine couldn't help but let out a sigh if pleasure. One great thing about hotels was the water pressure and the endless supply of hot water. Ok, that was two things, but <em>still.<em> It made putting off the inevitable much more relaxing. While he rinsed out his hair, he thought about the fact that he really didn't want to think about their sleeping arrangements for the night. He **really **didn't want to sleep on the cold, hard floor, but he knew that annoying, gentlemanly part of him that would compel him to offer. He would much rather spend his night in that freakishly soft bed next to his nice, warm boyfriend.

Reluctantly, he turned off the scalding water. If he spent much longer in the shower Kurt might come ask if he'd drowned. After dressing he opened the bathroom door and saw Kurt already lying on the queen-sized bed reading an issue of Vogue he'd picked up from one of the many newsstands dotted around New York City. Blaine walked to the edge of the bed and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by Kurt rolling his eyes and saying, "Come on. Do you really think I'd let you sleep on the floor? It's no better than a beach towel laid over some concrete." And with that, Kurt grabbed Blaine's wrist and tugged him onto the unoccupied side of the bed.

"Thanks," said Blaine, "I really wasn't looking forward to that."

"No problem." Three beats of awkward silence. "Well, we should probably go to sleep. It's already past eleven, and I don't want to sleep our day away tomorrow. Goodnight." Kurt set his magazine on the bedside table and turned off the lamp.

"Night," Blaine echoed.

And that was when the awkwardness really set in. They were both just laying there about a foot apart staring up at the ceiling like they were trying to read miniscule words etched there.

Thirty seconds, Blaine counted.

A minute.

A minute and a half.

Finally Blaine couldn't take it anymore. "This isn't working."

"Nope."

Fifteen seconds.

"Let's try this," Kurt said, plucking up his courage and moving closer. He leaned over and slowly kissed Blaine, and just like that, all uncomfortable tension disappeared. They kissed for a long time, slowly and easily. Kurt was propped up on one elbow next to Blaine, his free hand woven into Blaine's damp curls.

"This is better," Blaine whispered, "Much better."

"Mmm," Kurt hummed in agreement as he nuzzled into the crook of Blaine's neck. "But I did mean what I said about needing to go to sleep." And with that he rolled onto his side and rested his head on Blaine's chest. Blaine's hand moved to wrap around Kurt's waist and pull him closer

Blaine was surprised but not at all displeased by Kurt's sudden forthright actions. It wasn't at all like Kurt to take control like that, but it was nice. Blaine usually found it difficult figure out what Kurt wanted when it came to their relationship, and Blaine was always afraid that he was being too pushy any time he took things a little further.

Truthfully, Kurt didn't know what had come over him either. He had just thought that it was absurd for them to lay there like a pair of awkward turtles acting awkward when there was nothing to be awkward about. Yeah, Kurt was awkward about sex, but this wasn't sex; this was romance.

* * *

><p>Something had woken Kurt up, and he was <em>NOT <em>happy about it. He tried to block out the offending disturbance, but as it turns out, the sun is actually quite hard to ignore when it's shining directly in your eyes. Last night it had seemed like such a good idea to leave the drapes open so they could see the lights of the city, but now it just seemed stupid. How the heck had the sun managed to find a spot between the buildings to shine through, anyhow?

Kurt was about to get up to close the drapes when he became aware of _why _he was so mad that the sun had disturbed him. He was lying with his back to Blaine's chest, one of Blaine's legs between his and their feet tangled together. One of Blaine's arms was under his head and the other wrapped firmly around his waist, making it impossible to get up even if he had wanted to. Kurt racked his brain, but he couldn't remember being this close with anyone since his mom died. She used to lie on the couch and let him snuggle up to her on the nights he couldn't sleep because of nightmares. He used to have the funny habit of meowing every time she hugged him because she used to say that he was cuddly like a kitty cat. She would meow back and he would make a rumbling noise that was supposed to be a kitten purring.

Kurt lay completely still, soaking up the warmth that was seeping into his back. Sun or no sun, he was staying right where he was for as long as possible. But apparently, he wasn't the only one who needed sunglasses.

"I take it you couldn't sleep through it either?" Blaine mumbled into Kurt's neck, thoroughly startling the taller boy. Even if Blaine couldn't see Kurt's face, it had been clear enough when he had woken up. Blaine had been awake for roughly a half hour and in that time had noticed that Kurt was rarely completely still. He was one of those people who was always moving in his sleep, even if only by fractions. Kurt would squirm and snuggle closer, rubbing his cheek against Blaine's arm like a small animal looking for warmth. It didn't bother Blaine at all. Actually he thought it was really cute. He did, however, make a mental note to turn the air down before they next went to bed. Blaine was naturally a warm natured person, and it was only a strong desire to be close to Kurt that kept him in place under the thick down comforter that was better suited for the Arctic than New York in the summer.

"The sun? Yeah, I'm seeing spots." Blaine sat up, stretching with a yawn. Kurt leaned back against the headboard, rubbed his eyes blearily, and stretched like a cat, letting out a high squeaking noise. He noticed the amused look on his boyfriend's face. "What?" he asked defensively.

Blaine shook his head. "Nothing. You're just really cute first thing in the morning, you know that?" He tried to pull Kurt in closer, but the brunet put a firm hand to his chest.

"Not until we both brush our teeth. I might love you, but that doesn't mean I love your morning breath."

**Thanks for reading!**


	10. 01 retpahC

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Ok, just fair warning, but this story is going to be more centered on the progression of Kurt and Blaine's relationship and how they start to get more comfortable with each other. There probably won't be some huge, climactic moment (partly because the original concept of this story was set before they were dating). No one is going to die or be kidnapped. Like I said, this is more of a relationship story. I might possibly write a few one-shot kind-of sequels with higher ratings that can stand on their own to show the overall progression of the relationship, but in this story the relationship won't progress past a T rating.**

**Oh, and I really did have the shock of not being able to find **_**Out **_**at the giant Borders. Even my Borders which sits in a fairly conservative side of town stocks it. I promise the next chapter will be better and have a bit of plot progression.**

**And Just FYI, writing those backwards text messages is a bitch when you're dyslexic! **

**Thank you for your patients and reviews!**

Chapter 10

**01 retpahC**

(Saturday)

That morning, Kurt and Blaine spent longer than normal getting ready, both secretly trying to impress the other – and both thoroughly succeeding. There was a great contrast in their morning routines: Blaine rolled brightly out of bed, and Kurt took seven minutes just to work up the strength to get out of bed and another fifteen before he could do more than pace around the small room in mindless circled, unable to focus on one thing long enough to accomplish anything. Blaine spent his time trying to get his hair to lay flat, where as Kurt went to painstaking detail to make his spike up at all the right angles. Kurt dressed purely for fashion in white skinny jeans and dark purple button-up shirt, but Blaine went more for comfort with just the right touch of fashion with GAP jeans and a red and white striped Polo shirt.

Around eight as they were just finishing up, Blaine's phone gave three loud beeps from its place on the bedside table. "Hey Kurt," Blaine called from there he was adding the final touches to his hair, "Can you tell me who that was? I've got hair gel on my hands."

Kurt flipped open the phone, but didn't open the message its self. "It's Ren."

"Can you read it to me? It might be important; she normally dead to the world before 10:30." he said as he washed his hands.

Kurt opened the message and sucked in a breath to read it, but was caught off guard by the jumbled mess that greeted him.

_nEr~ .hcneb drith ,retal srouhowt ,emit tsal sa ecalp emaS_

"What the hell?" Kurt blurted as he stared at Blaine's phone.

"What?" Blaine asked as he hurried back into the room, bringing the towel he was drying his hands on with him. He had told Kurt to answer his phone under the assumption that his sister wouldn't pick 8:15 in the morning to make one of her startlingly lewd comment, which she tended to do once in a blue moon just for the shock value. One time last year David had opened one of Ren's messages, choked, and asked why some girl was texting Blaine dirty messages. David had been _**really**_ weirded out when he found out the girl was actually Blaine's sister. It had taken several minutes of fervent explanations before David was convinced that it was just a joke.

"I think your sister really has lost it now."

Blaine looked over Kurt's shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. "Try reading it backwards. Before I was out we had to find a way to send messages without dad being able to read them. He would never blatantly go through our phones, but he wasn't above trying to read as he went by. Writing things backwards made it just difficult enough that you couldn't read over someone's shoulder while moving."

Squinting, Kurt struggled to decipher the message.

_Same place as last time, two hours later, third bench. ~rEn_

"Again, may I say _what_?"

"That's her way of asking if was want to meet her in Central Park for lunch." Blaine raised his eyebrows and asked, "Want to? It's fine if not; trust me, it takes a lot more than turning down a lunch offer to hurt her feelings."

"I don't mind; I know you guys don't get to see each other very much."

Taking the phone from his boyfriend, Blaine shot back: _No need for spy speak unless you've actually broken the law and are on the run. Lunch in central is good with us._

"So, other than lunch, what's on the agenda for today?" Kurt asked.

"It's really whatever you want, but if you didn't have any planes, I figured we could just act like a pair of dorky tourists for the day and walk around the Time Square area. If we end up over there, there's something I want to pick up from the Borders by Madison Square Garden."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

><p>They headed out of the hotel towards Avenue of the Americas to eat breakfast a Mediterranean restaurant Blaine liked.<p>

"No matter how many times I come here I never get tired of this city." Blaine said as he looked around.

"I can see why," answered Kurt before scrunching up his nose, "But I must say, I do get tired of the smell."

Blaine chuckled, "Believe it or not, you'll get used to it before the end of the week." He opened the door of a small shop that Kurt hadn't even noticed.

Kurt looked around the shop in surprise. The whole front portion was smaller than his closet back home with just one long board on the far wall to eat at. Blaine was already staring up at the chalkboards to decide what he wanted. Not wanting Blaine to pay for his food yet again, Kurt chose the first thing that looked good and ordered before Blaine even had the chance to offer.

As they ate Kurt said, "Smile," and snapped a picture of Blaine with his phone. He sent it to Mercedes along with the message: _turns out i'm not dreaming _

After breakfast, they crossed back over to Time Square and started walking in the direction of Madison Square Garden. On the way they went into a couple of stores, but not very many. Kurt knew that there was no use spending his money in stores that he could go to back home when there were so many one-of-a-kind shops and boutiques outside of the tourist section of the city. They did, however, go into the giant Macy's. The sheer size of the sore was completely mind-boggling to Kurt, and neither he nor Blaine left completely empty handed.

When they finally came to Madison Square Garden, Kurt wandered around the plaza in amazement. On one side there was a Borders big enough to eat any other bookstore Kurt had ever seen and on the other was the view that Kurt had seen so many times on TV. People with suitcases in tow lined up to catch taxies after arriving at Penn Station.

"It never ceases to amaze me how huge this Borders is," Blaine said, startling Kurt from his thoughts.

"You know you've been to New York City a lot when you marvel more over the bookstore than the fact that we're right next to Madison Square Garden," Kurt said sarcastically and he followed Blaine into the Borders. Blaine didn't go upstairs but stopped at one of the many lines of shelves displaying magazines. He considered the first line wordlessly for a minute before moving to the other side. Apparently not finding what he was looking for, he moved to the last row and let out a grown of frustration before walking back to where he started and peering at the magazines more intently. "You know, if you'd tell me what you're looking for, I could help you look."

"I don't think it's here. Funny, even the Borders in the Lima mall stocks it. Maybe it's because this is such a high-tourist area."

"_What _are you looking for?" Kurt hissed in frustration, still trying to keep his voice low because of the quiet atmosphere.

"_Out_. I didn't get a chance to pick up the new issue before we left, and there's supposed to be an interview with Adel in it."

"If you buy it every month, why don't you just subscribe to it?"

"Have you met my dad? He still puts his fingers in his ears and goes 'la la la not listening' every time the subject of me being gay comes up. I really don't think an issue of _Out _showing up at the house once a month would help anything."

Kurt had in fact met Brian Anderson once. He wasn't a mean man, but he obviously struggled with his son's sexuality. Kurt was honestly afraid the man was going to pass out when Blaine introduced him as his boyfriend. Kurt got the impression the Blaine's father was the type to just try to pretend that it didn't exist.

"Come on," said Blaine, pulling Kurt out of the store.

"Where are we going?" Kurt struggled to keep up with Blaine's brisk pace. Stupid skinny jeans.

"Chelsea. There's a book store over there that I know will have it."

"What? Blaine, there's no way we can make it all the way from Chelsea to Central Park before lunch."

"We can if we take the subway back. I've still got my old Metro Card, so all we have to do is get you one."

Kurt's stomach lurched; whether at the thought of riding the subway for the first time or going into Chelsea for the first time, he didn't know, but it was probably the latter.

**Thanks for reading!**

**Once more, I promise the next chapter will be better and have a bit of plot progression.**


	11. What Kind of Bookstore?

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Okay, so before someone calls me on it, I'll say up front that the bookstore I'm describing isn't actually in New York. I went into a store a lot like it while in the city, but the store I'm describing is actually one from my city. I'm much more familiar with it, and it has more of what I need for the story context than the one in NYC did. And for anyone who hasn't seen **_**Shelter**_**, I highly recommend it.**

**Sorry this is such a short, kinda' pointless chapter, but I was torn between publishing it now or waiting to run it together with the next. I decided to make it stand on its own because I've wanted to write this scene since before I thought about writing ANS. It bugs me that the only gay movie that anyone ever talks about is **_Brokeback Mountain _**when there are ones out there that actually have happy endings.**

**Thank you for your support!**

Chapter 11

**What Kind of Bookstore?**

Kurt looked around in wonder as Blaine pulled him through the streets. This part of town might not have the same bright-lights shock factor as Time Square, but it held a wonder of its own for Kurt. Chelsea was a part of New York City renowned for its diversity and well known for being an area with a heavy gay population. The last time he was in New York Kurt had noticed the sheer number of men who he assumed were gay at first glance because they looked like extras from _Queer as Folk_ and many more he guessed were just very well dressed straight men, but here he also noticed shops the seemed to cater to a gay clientele, many with windows bearing the HRC logo or small gay flags in the corner.

"Here we are," said Blaine, looking pleased with himself at finding the store without having to ask for directions.

Kurt's eyes widened in shock. Before him was a store that practically had a flashing 'I'm gay' sign in the window. Well, it was a flashing pink triangle, but that's beside the point. The window of the bookstore in front of them had a wide array of gay fiction, movies, and general pride novelties displayed under a disco ball and notices about GLBT community group meetings clustered in its corners. Above the rainbow awning over the door waved not only the traditional rainbow flag but also the bear, leather, and bisexual flags. "Oh my Gaga…" he breathed out.

"Come on!"

Blaine tugged on his hand, but Kurt remained rooted where he was. "Blaine, I'm not sure I can do this." He didn't know what reason he had to be nervous, but he was, all the same.

"Of course you can. Don't worry; the staff is really nice. You'll be fine as long as you don't go past the red doors in the back. I highly doubt that's the kind of stuff you're looking for."

Still skeptical, Kurt followed Blaine in; the bell above the door gave a light tinkle as they entered. The front left corner of the shop was a lounge area with a couple of cushy chairs and a homey rug, and the right side was full of bookshelves holding section titles that Kurt had never before seen in a bookstore such as 'gay', 'lesbian,' and 'for the parents'. Another section held magazines like _Out, Curve, Diva, _and _Gay Times. _In the very back a set of red double doors stood open, and from that little bit Kurt could see, he could indeed vouch at that was _not _the kind of merchandise he was looking for.

Kurt started to follow Blaine to the magazines, but got sidetracked by the cover of a book called _Angle Land. _His eyebrows rose higher and higher as he read the back, which sounded incredible interesting and relatable because, guess what? It had gay main characters! He kept the book in hand as he went to find Blaine, who was now standing at a shelf displaying CDs and DVDs. The only titles Kurt recognized out of all the DVDs were _Brokeback Mountain_ and _Milk_. "Are all these gay themed movies?" he asked in astonishment.

"You didn't think _Brokeback Mountain_ was the only one in existence, did you?" Blaine said with a smirk.

"I never really thought about it. I've never really heard of any others."

"Yeah, that's because all the ones with happy ending never get any publicity. I've been looking for this one forever. It's my absolute favorite." He indicated a movie called _Shelter._

Kurt's ears perked up. "It has a happy ending?"

"Not just happy, jump-up-and-down happy. Endings don't come much happier than this one. I'm going to get it, so we'll have to watch it one night. Also," he picked up another DVD labeled _Just a Question of Love_, "You're fluent in French, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Good, because I can't speak a word in French that isn't from a Pink song, and I _know '_Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir ' isn't something I need to go around saying." Kurt blushed at the lines that roughly translated to '_do you want to sleep with me tonight_?'"This one's really good with a happy ending too. Only problem is that it's completely in French, and I'm only assuming that this version had subtitles."

Blaine looped his arm around Kurt's waist and stifled the taller boy's squawk of protest with a warm smile. They were always careful – possibly too careful at times – with public displays of affection. On the race occasion that they did hold hands or be affectionate in public, they usually got unabashed stares from people around them, not all of which were pleasant, but here no one stared. An older man passing by smiled as if he was remembering some long-forgotten part of his youth, but that was the extent of the onlookers. In Lima, Ohio, the people who weren't glaring at them tended to watch he and Kurt as if they were some kind of spectator sport. It was almost as if people had seen gay guys on TV but never actually seen a couple in reality, so they were suddenly having a They-do-exist! moment.

They made their way to the front desk to check out, and while they waited for the sales assistant to finish helping another costumer Kurt noticed a glass bowl full of small, woven rainbow bracelets. He wavered for a second, considering weather or now it was a good idea to get one, then thought _what the heck. _It was pride month after all.

**Thanks for reading and sorry it was really pointless!**

**Next chapter: The return of Ren and with her some actual plot.**


	12. Bi the Way…

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: I really did see that cockroach and slime mold while I was in New York, not kidding. And the A train thing did happened to me. It just kept going and going and going, and pretty soon I realized I was going to Harlem whether I wanted to or not.**

**And for those of you who don't know Tisch is New York University's school for the arts. NYU sits not far from Greenwich Village on the ****west side of Lower Manhattan****. **

**Also, GO NEW YORK! Full equality for all! *Does happy dance* One more reason to move there. Much better than my stupid state, which just passed a law forbidding teachers to talk about any sexuality other than straight with students even to help them. And trust me, school is the time when kids need the most help! *Kicks something out of frustration then jumps around because of a stubbed toe***

**From now on I'm going to try to post teasers for the next chapter on my tumblr when I'm half way through writing it. I'm oppisum (dot) tumblr (dot) com**

**P.S. The original title for this chapter was **_**Can We Keep It?**_** I just thought some of you might get a kick out of that.**

**Thank you for the reviews!**

Chapter 12

**Bi the Way…**

After some trial and error with the machine, Kurt and Blaine finally managed to get a Metro Card for Kurt so they could take the subway to Central Park. They now stood on the underground platform waiting for the next blue line C train to Columbus Circle. "You know," said Kurt, "I think if we put a leash on it we could keep that cockroach over there as a pet. Give it ears and a tail, and it could pass for a small dog." He gave a sly smirk. "Can we keep it?"

Blaine's eyes widened in horror as he edged quickly away and moved to stand on the other side of Kurt. "Yes, but it has to sleep on your side of the bed."

"It's still better than the slime mold that ate Manhattan over there." Kurt made a face and jerked his finger back towards a metal pillar where some red slime mold seemed to have grown a mind of its own. "So, do all of the subway stations say their named like this?" He indicated a mosaic of tile on the wall reading _Penn Station._

"Uh-huh. Most of the older trains don't have digital displays of which street you're at the way the yellow line trains do, so they put it on the walls so you can see it out the window."

A train labeled with a white A in a blue circle whooshed by and came to a halt, breaks protesting loudly. Kurt made to get on it, but Blaine held him back. "Not that one, Kurt."

"I thought we wanted the blue line?"

"The C train, not the A. At this time of day the A train turns into an express train to Harlem, and trust me, it only takes passing four stations without stopping for you to realize that you're going to Harlem whether you want to or not." There was a humorous edge in Blaine's voice that was very telling to Kurt.

"Speaking from experience, I take it?"

"Yep." He paused before adding, "I'm not trying to be racist by saying this, but it kinda' sticks with you when one night you end up being the only small white guy on a train that was almost totally empty apart from a few burly black dudes who could have stepped on you and squished you."

After Kurt's laughter died out they fell into a comfortable silence. Well, comfortable for Kurt. Blaine felt awkward because he was trying to figure out how to broach a subject without angering Kurt again. He ran his hand anxiously through his hair, forgetting the absurd amount of gel he had put in it that morning, and ended up trying to wipe his hand off on his pants. In the end, he decided to just dive in head first, consequences be damned. "Kurt, we need to talk about something. I really don't want to bring it up again because I'm pretty sure our biggest and only fight to date was because of this, but here it goes." He took a deep breath, than said, "We need to talk about being bisexual."

"Blaine," Kurt said in a whiney voice, "Not this again. Just go kiss Rachel sober again and you'll remember that you're 100% GAY!"

"Kurt, I know that. It's not me I'm talking about."

Kurt raised his eyebrows. "If you think _I _want to kiss a girl, you're sorely mistaken. Ugg. Just the thought works better than Finn's mailman." He shuddered.

"Wait, mailman? What?" Blaine shook his head; that question would just get them off subject. "I know you're gay, Kurt. Or at least, God, I hope you are. At any rate," he waved his hands as if clearing a slate before continuing, "After Rachel's party, you said that you didn't believe bisexual exists. Well, you should know that it does. Maybe not for people like you and me, but it does."

"Blaine, it's just an excuse!"

"No, it's not, Kurt! Don't say stuff like that when you don't understand. You saying that bisexual doesn't exist just because you don't feel that way is no better than other people saying gay doesn't really exist because they're straight!"

Kurt gasped, taken aback. He shuffled his feet nervously, not knowing what to say. He'd never really thought about it like that before. Finally, he said in a quieter voice, "But how do you _know?_" He wasn't trying to argue anymore; he just wanted to know.

"Because… Ren is bisexual. I've seen her date both guys and girls and fall in love with both. I help her pick up the pieces every time she gets her heart broken, whether it be by a man or by woman. She hides behind all of her eccentricities, but in reality she's never been as strong as someone like you, Kurt. She had a big heart that she just doesn't know how to protect and be herself at the same time. She won't sleep with just anyone, but she'll sleep with anyone she's in love with whether they love her back or not. She doesn't fall in love a lot, but when she does, she falls hard.

"She refuses to tell our parents she's bi because she's afraid of how they'll take having two children who aren't straight. Worse still, she's afraid that if she tells them they'll expect her to date only girls. Also," There was a long pause before Blaine said so softly that Kurt almost couldn't hear it over the rush of wind as their train arrived. "She's afraid that they'll expect me to be able to choose between genders just because she can."

"Is that why…?" Kurt trailed off as they got on the crowded train.

"Yeah, that's why I got so excited when I thought I might be bi. If I were, she could come out without having to worry about me."

As they road in silence, Kurt tried to get acquainted with his new paradigm shift. Up until that point he'd always assumed that even celebrities like Lady Gaga just said they were bi to show support for the gay community in some roundabout way. But now…

* * *

><p>This time Kurt was prepared for the rush of glitter and curly hair that jumped on them as they arrived at their specified meeting place. Ren smiled brightly before grabbing both of their hands. "Come on! There's a stand over here that has the most amazing crêpes!"<p>

Soon, they were sitting in an emerald green patch of grass eating the most delicious crêpes any of them had ever had. This time Kurt hadn't even bothered looking at the menu and just let Ren do her thing. Once again, she hit the nail right on the head, ordering him one filled with caramel and green apple slices. It might be messy, but it was like eating a slice of the gods' ambrosia.

Ren was prattling on about something, but Blaine couldn't hear it. He was way too preoccupied watching Kurt lick yet another drop of caramel off his finger, still completely oblivious to the effect he was having on Blaine. The dark haired boy knew that his mesmerized staring must be insanely obvious to anyone besides Kurt, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"… and my dear brother here is so preoccupied watching his cute boyfriend that he isn't even listening. He's not even noticed that strawberries from his crêpes keep falling on the ground. That's why I ordered him extra strawberries; I knew he would end up doing something like this. I bet right now he's thinking 'I wonder if Kurt's doing that on purpose?'"

Blaine's head snapped around so stare at her, his mouth hanging open stupidly. That had been what he was thinking.

"Oh look, he decided to tune into the conversation with the rest of us mortals not gifted with the ability to tune out a nuclear war. And the answer is no, Blaine. Kurt wasn't doing that intentionally. I can tell by the way he's blushing now."

"Okay Ren, enough about us!" Blaine spoke loudly in a futile attempt to cover up his own embarrassment. "So how are your living arrangements going?"

"Just fine. At this point I'm completely financially independent. My apartment's not too far from the theater, either."

"You found a roommate, I take it."

"Yes. Shelby Clonally. She was a couple years ahead of me at NYU." Ren didn't meet his eyes.

"Oh, no. Ren, I know that look in your eye. You _know _dating your roommate never ends well."

"We're not dating."

"Well you've sure as hell slept with her! Don't even try to lie to me, sis." Blaine started grinning.

"Blaine, you should know by now that sleeping with someone doesn't mean you're dating them. You know, I don't want to talk about this." There was a sharp edge in her normally-perky voice."How about we just go back to when you were staring at Kurt, I was showing off the fact that I can read people like books, and Kurt listening to me while obliviously kicking his fingers."

Blaine's goofy grin faded. "We're going to talk about this because if you won't talk to me about it, you won't talk to anyone about it. And I know you, Ren. You don't sleep with someone unless you're absolutely sure you're in love with them."

"Fine, I slept with her, okay! End of story; close the book."

"If you've slept with her, then obviously by your standards you're in love her. Does she not like you?"

"She does," Ren said curtly.

"So why aren't you dating if she likes you too?"

"She refuses to date me."

"What did you do?"

"Why do you assume I did something?" She sighed. "No, it's more about what I didn't do."

"Oh?"

Kurt sat silently, looking back and forth between the pair of siblings like he was watching a ping-pong match.

"She… well, she won't… God! She won't date me unless I come out to our parents! She's out and proud and expects anyone she dates to be the same. It doesn't matter that the entire city at large knows that I'm bi, she refuses to date me unless I tell them specifically. There, happy?"

"Not really, because I agree with her. You need TO TELL THEM."

"Right, and that'll go over real well. You were always the favorite, and look how dad took it when you came out."

"It could have been worse."

"Worse? Blaine, the man choked on his dinner and had to go the ER. You and I both know that things changed between you after you told him."

"Ren, you don't even live with them anymore and like you said before, you're financially independent now. They didn't disown me, and they won't disown you."

"Yeah, and you're part of the reason I won't tell them. You know what dad will do. He'll assume you can choose too and start pressuring you to date girls."

"Ren, that doesn't matter now. I'm in love with Kurt, and I think dad has realized at this point that there is nothing he or anyone else can do to change that. I'm going to lay it out for you: From now on if you say that I'm the reason you're not out, I'll say you're just using me as an excuse. Do this for yourself, Ren, and stop worrying about me."

"Yeah well, as much as I am worried for your sake, I'm also worried for my own. No offense, but you're completely gay. I, on the other hand, am bi. Knowing them, they'll say that since I have a choice, I should just choose a guy."

"So, if you have a choice, then why don't you just choose guys?" Kurt blurted out. "It would be a hell of a lot easier than having to put up with the taunting and discrimination."

"Maybe I don't want to! Maybe I want to just date whoever I fall in love with, whether they're a guy or a girl!" She paused a moment and take in the mildly frightened, deer-in-the-headlights expression on Kurt's face at her outburst. "Sorry, I'm not mad at you; I promise. It was a valid question. I just get sick of people not believing that I really am bisexual. It's like… you sit on a fence when you're bi. The straight community doesn't completely accept you, but the gay community doesn't always believe you."

Kurt couldn't bring himself to say anything. Guilt was sitting in the pit of his stomach like a lead weight because up until an hour ago he had been one of those people. And he was sure that Ren knew that.

"Blaine," she started in a soft, concerned tone, "You know as well as I do that it WILL cause trouble for you when –if – I come out."

Blaine's eyes softened and he ran his hand over her hair before saying in quiet voice, "Don't worry about me. If all goes as planned, I'll be out of that house and here at Tisch in a little over a year."

"So, NYU it is, then?"

"Yep. It's both Kurt and I's first choice."

Ren gave Kurt a skeptical look, then addressed both boys, "No offense to either of you, and I'm not saying that you two won't have your fairy tale ending, but you shouldn't follow each other to college. That rarely ends well."

Blaine gave his sister a look that was nothing short of flabbergasted. "One, no one is following anyone anywhere. We both wanted to go to NYU before we even met, and two, you are _not _someone who should be giving _anyone _relationship advice unless the person receiving said advice is someone who's never made it through a single date without their date throwing coffee in their face before the salad even arrives."

"Hey, don't make fun of cousin Jim! I gave him sound advice, thank you very much. Now they at least wait until dessert to throw it at him."

As the siblings rolled in the grass laughing, Kurt asked, "So I take it you're romantic difficulties are a hereditary thing? Hmm, maybe I just cured some longstanding Anderson family illness."

At this the laughter redoubled. Between giggles, Ren choked out, "How about you date me too, then? I could use a bit of that cure."

Blaine put his arm around Kurt's shoulder and pulled the taller boy down to lay in the grass next to him, ignoring the halfhearted warning about grass stains. "Sorry, sis, I'm not sharing him. Monogamous relationship, remember?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," she said with a warm smile as she sat back up. Yes, thought Ren, she defiantly liked Kurt. He was good for her brother. Kurt didn't look like the strong type, but she knew he had to be, because some of that strength had started to rub off on her brother. Before now he never would have has the nerve to stand up to her and say that. Though she might me genuinely concerned for him, she was just using him as an excuse. She let out a melodramatic sigh.

"What?" asked Blaine.

"I guess there's nothing for it. Looks like I have to tell Mom and Dad." With a growl of frustration, she fell back against the soft grass. She did _NOT _want to make that phone call.

**Thanks for reading!**

**Next chapter: The second night.**


	13. Red Wine

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Sorry, the Italian might not be perfect. I speak Latin and Japanese, so the only Italian I know is the little bit my Latin teacher occasionally speaks in class. Definitions as I know them are at the bottom.**

**Thank you for the reviews!**

Chapter 13

**Red Wine**

Kurt and Blaine spent the rest of the day rambling about the city with Ren before finally heading back to the room around nine. In tow was Italian take out Ren rated as "very good" because they were too utterly exhausted to maintain good etiquette in a restaurant. They were roughly one hundred feet from the entrance to their hotel when Blaine pulled Kurt into a small Asian convenience store right next door.

"Wha-?" Kurt exclaimed as he was pulled through the open door.

"I want to get some things that are too expensive to get from the hotel."

"Like?"

Blaine reached out to a shelf and grabbed a bag of _Lays._ "Like chips, vitamin water, and strawberries."

"_One of these things is not like the others…_" chanted Kurt, amused at how unhealthy the chips were compared to the other two. Blaine chuckled and turned to the opposite wall.

"Do you have a preference?" He said, gesturing to the small shelf of wines.

Kurt looked a bit startled. "Alcohol and I aren't exactly on friendly terms."

"Kurt, I'm the one who ended up passed out in your bed and you're saying _you _have a bad relationship with alcohol?. I've never even seen you drink."

"There's a reason why."

Blaine raised his eyebrows in question. He sincerely hoped that this wasn't about to be some dark family story because then he would just feel really guilty for bringing the subject up in the first place.

"Last year…" Kurt hesitated before sucking in a deep breath and saying as fast as he could, "Last year I ended up showing up to school drunk and throwing up on our germaphobe guidance councilor."

"Wait, what? _How?_" Blaine had seen pictures of Kurt from his sophomore year, and he honestly couldn't imagine who would be gullible enough to think Kurt was over sixteen.

"April Rhodes." That was all Blaine needed to know. "No laughing. Long story short, Mr. Shu brought her into New Direction even though she's, like, ancient. She wanted to make us like her, so she started bribing up. She slept with Puck, taught Tina and Mercedes how to shop lift, and gave me alcohol and muscle magazines. She said the alcohol would help me with my confidence problems but didn't warn me what would happen if I drank too much. It really reinforced my dad's assertion of 'Don't drink anything given to you by a stranger,' but I thought he only meant at parties. That's why I didn't drink at Rachel's; I did _not _want to relive that experience." Kurt caught sight of Blaine, who was biting his lip in an attempt to keep quiet. "Okay, you can laugh now."

Laughing that laugh that always made Kurt smile, Blaine put his hand on Kurt's shoulder. "Like I said Kurt, no one has a good relationship with alcohol when it comes to drinking in excess. Maybe we could try this again, and this time in a setting where getting drunk isn't the point." He raised his eyebrows to show that it was an open question. Blaine didn't want Kurt to think that he was trying to push him to drink, but he did want to show Kurt that not all alcohol was meant to get you drunk.

"Okay…" Kurt's skepticism was clear.

Blaine considered the meager selection of wine and said, "My mom always drinks a glass of wine each night. A couple years ago she started letting me have a glass with her every once in a while. Ah, here we go." He reached out to pick up a bottle of red wine. "Merlots have always been my favorite."

The man behind the checkout counter barely even glanced at the fake ID as they checked out. Kurt gave Blaine a confused glance as he set a couple tea candles and a box of matches with their items, but the curly-haired boy just shrugged.

They made their way back into the hotel, Kurt carrying the food and Blaine carrying a grocery sack that obviously held a bottle of alcohol. From behind the reception desk Mark gave Blaine a piercing stare as they walked past. Blaine mumbled under his breath just loud enough for Mark to hear, "Mark, don't look at me in that tone of voice. It's just a bottle of red. We aren't going to get hammered and trash the room."

Back upstairs Blaine practically sprinted to get in the shower, telling Kurt that they would both feel better if they showered before they ate. True to his word and contrary to his tendency to take excessively long showers, Blaine was back in the room still drying off his hair before Kurt even had time to get his clothes together. Still thoroughly perplexed, Kurt tried to shower as quickly as possible. Well, as quickly as possible and still condition his hair properly. When Kurt stepped out of the bathroom, the unimportant words resting on his lips dies and his hands flew up to cover his mouth.

In front of him was a candle lit Italian dinner. It might have been served on Styrofoam, but STILL, it had candles! Blaine has emptied off one of the end tabled and drug it to the foot of the bed. On the opposite side of the end table was the computer chair that normally resided at the desk. "Signore," Blaine said with a slight bow, indicating the chair.

At a loss for what to say, Kurt curtsied slightly. "You're amazing, you know that?" he said, sitting.

As Blaine pushed in Kurt's chair, he whispered "Per la persona che amo," in his boyfriends ear, sending shivers up the seated boy's spine.

"Anche io ti amo," Kurt breathed.

Blaine did a double take as he sat on the foot of the bed. "You speak Italian?"

Kurt shrugged. "Only enough to get me in trouble."

With a affectionate look, Blaine rested his elbow on the table and tilted his head to one side. "Potrei guardarti tutto il giorno."

He couldn't understand ever word, but Kurt could decipher enough to make him blush, flattered. Yes, he was defiantly head over heels in love with Blaine Anderson.

**Thanks for reading!**

**Signore – Sir**

**per la persona che amo – For the one love**

**Anche ****io ti amo – I love you too**

**Potrei guardarti tutto il giorno – I could watch you all day**

**Next chapter: Bad dreams.**


	14. Nightmares

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: So, sorry I've been holding out on you until now. *coughs in embarrassment* **_**This**_** is the reason I haven't wrote many kissing scenes; I wanted to make this chapter stand out from the rest and give it that surreal feeling of the New York nights. I spent more time writing this chapter than any other, and poured the same fiery writing into it as I do into my original works.**

**Seriously, thank you so much for the reviews and favorites, everyone!**

Chapter 14

**Nightmares**

Kurt stood in front of his mother's grave, tears threatening to boil over once more. Even though it was late summer, every tree around him stood as bear as the dead of winter. His hands shook uncontrollably as the shadows grew longer and engulfed him in a never ending night.

The scene changed.

Carol wept at the bedside of his father, who lay perfectly still, his skin drained of all color save for the sallow gray of death. Kurt stood numb, unable to process the sorrow that consumed his heart with such a force that he couldn't even remember how to cry or even breath.

The scene shifted once more.

Kurt sat in bed sick, lamenting the fact that he had been unable to attended Regionals due to a severe case of blue pony pox. A news report. A bus full of glee club students from Lima had crashed on the way to a competition, killing everyone on board. No. No! Not again! This couldn't be happening!

Again, the scene swiftly altered.

Blaine lay curled on the blacktop, the yellow streetlights casting the shadows as tall as forest trees. Fresh blood gleamed in the moonlight like rubies poured from sky into glistening pools of crimson. He didn't move, didn't stir. Didn't breath.

A final scene change.

Kurt lay huddled in a corner of William McKinley High School, his hands thrown over his head as tears streamed down his face. Azimio advanced towards him, a murderous look haunting his gaunt eyes. Kurt didn't scream; it was no use anyhow. He was alone now, completely and irrevocably alone.

"Kurt."

He flinched, waiting for the first blow to strike.

"Kurt!"

But wait, that wasn't Azimio's voice!

"Kurt, wake up!"

He wasn't alone!

Kurt sat bolt upright in bed with a strangled cry. It was a dream, just a dream. Even as strong arms circled around him, the tears began to fall, softly at first, but then in all-consuming sobs that shook his body violently. "Shhh. It's ok. It was only a nightmare. Just a bad dream. I'm right here," Blaine whispered, pulling Kurt to his chest and rocking him back and forth.

"I… d-don't… even k-know… why… I'm c-crying," Kurt forced between sobs, refusing to meet Blaine's eyes, "Just… a s-stupid… dream. S-sorry."

"No apologizing," whispered Blaine, tilting Kurt's chin up so as to force him to make eye contact. He gently brushed Kurt's chestnut hair from his eyes and marveled at how the moonlight caught on the tear tracks that trailed down his cheeks. With his thumb, Blaine brushed these until they disappeared and blended with the rest of the serounding porcelain skin. His breath hitched as he stared into Kurt's shining eyes, eyes that reflected fear of some unknown terror and yet a trust in Blaine that was almost unfathomable. Blaine leaned closer, drawn by some invisible tether that felt like nothing he had ever felt before, like a gravity of love and passion. Though the sound of car horns and thumping bass of the city pervaded the room, it still felt surreally quiet and intimate in the one AM darkeness.

"Kiss me," Kurt breathed, his own words surprising him.

Blaine gladly complied, capturing Kurt's lips in a soft kiss that still held all the passion that burned within the inferno of his chest. Their lips moved in perfect synchronicity, and their thoughts were lost to the New York night. Blaine could taste the tears still fresh upon his boyfriend's lip as he sucked it in-between his own. The low hum of pleasure that escaped Kurt's mouth surprised them both, but only spurred then onwards.

Kurt parted his lips a little in invitation as his breath hitched with the remnants of another dry sob. Blaine easily pulled Kurt onto his lap, letting one hand thread into Kurt's impressively soft hair and the other wined firmly around his slender waist. With the accompaniment of a low moan, Blaine allowed his tongue to slide briefly over Kurt's before breaking away only by sheer force of will. Sure, they had kissed plenty of times before, but never quite like this, with a fevered passion that defied and surpassed all words. Their emotions and love for one another hung in the air like a tangible fog, clouding all senses and stifling reason. His breath came in shallow pants as he said, "Wait, please, just wait."

All of Kurt's fleeting confidence evaporated into the heavy summer air, "Did… did I do something wrong?" He hadn't even had time to feel self-conscious before now.

"No! No, nothing's wrong. That's the problem, you're doing everything right. I… I just… Kurt, you're upset. I don't want things to get… out of hand."

In the slow, cautious voice he always used when treading into unknown territory Kurt said, "So, in other words, you're afraid that you're taking advantage of me."

"No! Um, well yes, but…"

"Blaine, you seem to be the confused one here, not me. I don't exactly know what I'm doing, but I trust you completely because I know that you won't try to push me past my limits. And," he sucked in a deep breath, "as this relationship moves along, so will those boundaries."

"But how am I supposed to know where your limits are if you've never told me?" Blaine asked, his frustration of the past two months finally boiling over.

"You just have to trust that I'll tell you when we find one because I'm still a little shaky on that too. Right now, this," he gestured at where he sat on Blaine's thighs, "is defiantly not breaking any boundaries."

Blaine got a sheepish look, suddenly regretting bringing things to a halt in the first place. "So… does that mean we can pick up where we left off?"

"Yes, Blaine," Kurt said with a throaty laugh several octaves below normal, "We can pick up _exactly _where we left off."

With that, the air thickened once more and Kurt pushed Blaine back on the bed, eliciting a startled gasp. "Too far for you?" Kurt asked, realizing that he never even took Blaine's limits into consideration.

"God no," Blaine exhaled, and then they were kissing again. Kurt _literally _lay on top of Blaine, glad that though he might be taller, he was actually to lighter of the two of them. Kurt lay directly on top of Blaine, whose hands rested on his hips, their legs tangled. They kissed languidly, their lips moving together lazily. They were both completely blissed-out, and neither could bring themselves to care about one-AM morning breath the way they would have if the sun were shining. The muscles of Blaine's upper arms felt taunt and strong under Kurt's roaming hands while one of Blaine's hands came to rest on the back Kurt's upper thighs seemingly of its own accord. It was that time of night where things that would normally seem like a bad idea seemed perfectly reasonable due to the abandonment of inhibitions. Even though it registered that this was something they probably wouldn't do in the daylight, they just couldn't bring themselves to give a shit.

Blaine's head spun – and not just from lack of oxygen – as his tongue slipped between Kurt's lips. Kurt let out a kind of melodic keening noise as their tongues wove together in an intimate dance. When they as last needed air, Blaine whispered into the crook of Kurt's neck, "You're so beautiful."

"You're one to talk. Sometimes I think you just forgot how you fell from Olympus," Kurt sighed into his boyfriend's ear. "I love you."

"I love you too, beautiful," said Blaine, holding Kurt just far enough away so he could stare into the crystal depths of his eyes.

Kurt had to agree that there was one thing Rachel Berry did have right: Blaine's lips did really taste awesome.

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Fashion

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Sorry it took so long! I was out of town and didn't have as many opportunities to write as I would have liked. I only got to publish a new AU story. At any rate, I'm back now and should be back to my normal schedule.**

**Thank you to my amazing poof reader for your support and feedback as well as the t-shirt idea.**

**Thank you for your patience and support!**

Chapter 15

**Fashion**

Blaine's first thought of the morning was that he was glad he remembered to turn the air down. Rubbing his eyes with his free hand, he took in him and Kurt's current position. He was lying on his back with Kurt's head resting on his chest. His arm was wrapped securely around the still-dozing boy's shoulders and one of Kurt's legs was thrown over him. Kurt turned slightly in his sleep, his hair moving to give Blaine an unobstructed view of his face. Not yet being awake enough to stop himself, Blaine laughed out loud at just how chapped Kurt's lips. He only laughed harder when he realized his were just as bad – if not worse.

Raising his head off his boyfriend's chest, Kurt gave Blaine a nasty look that was somewhere between indigent and his bitch face. "Blaine, it's seven AM. That's two hours too early for my pillow to be laughing."

Blaine tousled Kurt's already ruffled hair. "I'm sorry, but your pillow needs to get up to go to the bathroom."

With a discontented growl, Kurt disentangled himself from his boyfriend and sat up blearily. After a few hazy blinks of his eyes, the memories of the previous night came rushing back in startling detail and caused a faint blush to creep across his cheeks.

Blaine's lips on his.

Roaming hands.

Him practically lying on top of Blaine.

At that memory he started coughing like that creepy old man in that book. Had he seriously ordered Blaine to kiss him? Well, at least he hadn't begged…

"Kurt, you okay? You look like you've forgotten how to breathe."

"Fine!" Kurt practically yelled, his voice jumping two octaves. "I was just wondering what we're going to do today; that's all."

"I have some ideas about that."

"Oh? Do share."

"It's a surprise. Just trust me."

"Because _that_ phrase never ends badly."

"Take this; I think you could use it."

Still not fully awake, Kurt's reflexes weren't fast enough for him to grab the little stick of lip balm before it his him on the forehead. He blushed even harder as he uncapped it.

* * *

><p>"I have something for you. Well, for both of us, actually."<p>

Kurt raised his eyebrows, and Blaine reached into a generic white plastic bag he'd mysteriously gotten when Kurt turned his back to ogle Time Square once more. "I thought we could both wear these tomorrow," Blaine said in a half-joking, half-serious tone. "Matching, you know."

In his hands were a pair of those atrociously tacky _I 3 New York_ shirts. "Oh look, you just broke the stereotype that all gays put fashion first," Kurt said using the same tone as when he criticized Rachel for dressing like both a toddler and a grandmother. "I'm sorry, Blaine, but I already have all my outfits picked out for every day of this trip."

"Oh, I think that's going to change once you see where we're going." Kurt sighed in exasperation but didn't bother asking again. Even after breakfast he was still oblivious as to where they were going, and Blaine determinedly refused to tell him. That is, until he stopped in front of a random street sign and said, "Ta-da!"

Kurt frowned, "What? It's just a-" The words died on his tongue as he realized exactly what the little green sign said –

5th Av

"Oh my Gaga," be breathed as he took in the stores on either side of him. He and Rachel might have had breakfast at Tiffany's, but there hadn't exactly been time for shopping when he'd been in New York for Nationals. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Gap, Fendi, Nine West, St. John, Brooks Brothers, Versace – the list went on and on.

The first stop was Saks and Company. The sheer volume of amazing clothes almost made both of their heads spin. Blaine found it almost eerie how fast Kurt was able to find the Marc Jacobs and Alexander McQueen sections. Needless to say, Kurt had one more McQueen scarf by the time they walked back out the front doors.

Soon they were darting in and out of store after store and accumulating ever more bags. Kurt absolutely loved the summer collection in Hugo Boss, whereas he thought he would never be able to get Blaine out of the Diesel store. As they walked through it's relatively dark upper floor, Blaine said, "What do you think of this one?" and held up what looked to Kurt like a cross between a green blazer and a Members only jacket. Surprisingly, it really worked.

Kurt nodded his approval. "I like it for you."

"I have to ask, what do you mean, 'you like it for me'? You keep saying that every once in a while, and I can't tell if it's supposed to be negative feedback or not."

"No, not negative. It's just my way of looking at clothes objectively."

"How so?"

Kurt sighed. "You asked if I like it. For me there're two different types of liking clothes: liking it for someone else or liking it for myself. You can where that; I can't."

Blaine still looked a bit confused.

"Think about it this way, you said you liked that button down cashmere sweater I got, but could you picture yourself wearing that?"

"No, defiantly not."

"Well, that's how I am here. I can't see myself wearing much more than Diesel jeans. Sure, I could pull it off – if I could pull off the trucker look my sophomore year, I can pull off anything – but it just wouldn't be _me._"

"True, but you really did pull off trucker better than expected."

"Wait, how'd you see that?" Kurt asked, his ears turning red.

"Facebook, young Jedi, Facebook." Blaine smirked slyly. "You looked really good in that Cheerios uniform, by the way."

Kurt thought he was going to pass out then and there in the middle of the Diesel store.

**Thanks for reading!**

**Next chapter: Flirtatious waitress and jealous!Kurt.**


	16. Kurt's Jealousy

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Sorry it's so short!**

**Thanks for the reviews!**

Chapter 16

**Kurt's Jealousy**

"…And that's when I told Puck that even if he had good intention, I neverwanted him to try to set me up on a blind date _ever_ again. And I mean, like, EVER."

Blaine snorted into his cup of coffee in a vain attempt to not choke. He and Kurt were currently sitting in a small café they had chanced upon for lunch. Coffee was, of course, a necessity. One of the greatest parts about being in the north was that you could get great coffee wherever you went. Reading his boyfriend's mind, Kurt said, "You know, it's great to be able to order an iced coffee wherever you go and not get looked at like you're crazy. In lima they think I'm mental if I don't want milk of sweetener in it."

"And almost everywhere you go here sells espresso," agreed Blaine, running his hand through his gel-less hair.

Before Kurt had a chance to reply, a tall, blond waitress with perfectly straight hair and breathtaking curves cut him off with her tinkling soprano. "I'm Sarah and I'll be your waitress today. Sorry for your wait," she told Blaine, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "What can I get for you?"

"The grilled chicken sandwich, please."

She scribbled on her pad for a moment before batting her eyelashes and asking him, "Anything else?" to which Blaine gestured at Kurt. Reluctantly, she turned to face him and nodded to show that she was ready to take his order. At first, as Kurt ordered, he was somewhat amused by the way the young waitress kept glancing back to Blaine, but then as she continued to address only the curly-haired boy, Kurt's amusement turned into blatant irritation.

The little green kitten of envy that always dwelled in Kurt's chest when anyone else started flirting with Blaine – it was a fairly regular occurrence - began pacing back and forth as Blaine thanked the waitress and gave a dazzling smile. Once the girl was out of earshot, Kurt hissed, "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"You know you're only going to encouraging her by being so damn charming."

The puppy-dog look of confusion and innocence told Kurt that Blaine had been completely lost. "Encourage her?"

Kurt sighed; this was like trying to explain the color blue to someone who could only see warm colors. "She was flirting with you. BIG TIME."

"She was? Huh, I didn't even notice."

"She was. She was looking at you as much as possible and refused to even talk to me." His disgruntled tone didn't go unnoticed by Blaine.

About that time, the waitress returned to refill their still-full glasses and continue flirting with Blaine. "Is your hair naturally that curly? It looks really good. Most guys can't pull off curly hair, but yours is just the right combination of messy and neat."

"Yeah. Normally I keep it gelled down, but Kurt here said it looks better loose."

She gave Kurt an envious look that clearly stated that she wished she could have been the one to suggest it.

After that, the rest of lunch continued in the same way. Sarah made more stops than actually necessary to their table and made sure to flirt openly with Blaine each time, with Kurt becoming more and more irked each time. By the time she brought them their check, the little green kitten in Kurt's chest had turned into a roaring lion. "So, Blaine, I was wondering if you'd like to go to dinner with me sometime."

Blaine glanced that Kurt, who looked like his head was about to explode. "Um, thank you, but Kurt and I are only in town for a few days."

"Oh, I'm sure your little brother can find something to do for one night. That's all we'll need, one night."

Both Kurt and Blaine turned red. Difference was, Blaine was embarrassed; Kurt wasn't. "Kurt's not my brother. Plus, I'm a minor."

"Well in that case, so am I."

_Like hell,_ thought Kurt. _She would be lucky to pass for under twenty five, even if any straight guy would have found her hot._

"Sarah, you don't understand. I'm-"

"Whatever you are, it doesn't matter. Dinner as seven?"

By now Blaine was looking exceedingly flustered and frustrated. _He might as well give up_, thought Kurt. _I have. If she didn't realize that we're gay when he started talking about what products he uses on his hair, this is a losing battle._"No! Kurt's my-"

Blaine was cut off when Kurt's lips met his. It was a passionate – albeit short – kiss. With a smug spark in his eye, Kurt turned back to Sarah. "I would be his boyfriend, not his little brother, and I would thank you to stop messing with my man."

The waitress stood in stunned silence for a minute before finally saying, "Damn it. That's the third gay one this week," and walking off.

As they walked out of the café, Blaine gave Kurt a sly smirk, "I should make you jealous more often, because I gotta' tell you, kinda' hot. So, I'm your man now?"

There was no mistaking the smugness in his voice. Blushing, Kurt shoved Blaine playfully in the shoulder. "You are if I can be yours."

Blaine surprised his boyfriend by grabbing him by the forearm and pulling him into a kiss in the middle of a street.

Neither of them even noticed when the cyclist that ran right into a stop sign, knocking his groceries off his bike.

**Thanks for reading!**


	17. Blaine's Jealousy

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Sorry, but I couldn't help the **_**Queer as Folk**_** reference with the name Babylon. And I only make the law jokes because I'll soon be a pre-law student (hopefully with a double major in creative writing).**

**Seriously, you guys have no clue how much I appreciate all of your support. You make me want to keep writing not only this, but also my original works.**

Chapter 17

**Blaine's Jealousy**

As the bass thumped and the multicolored lights flashed, Blaine couldn't help but wonder what Ren had been thinking when she suggested they come here and what he had been thinking to have listened to her so easily. It was around nine-thirty at night, and he and Kurt were currently in some club called Babylon in God only knows what part of New York. He'd followed Ren's directions, but the thing was, her directions were meant to be followed blindly, not understood. He suspected that they were near – if not on or under knowing Ren – one of the piers because even inside he could still small salt water. Then again, he thought ruefully, as industrial as this place felt they might very well be in a warehouse somewhere.

"Blaine, come on," Kurt said, taking both of his hands and pulling him towards the dance floor. "Dance with me; don't just stand there!"

It was funny, Blaine mused, that Kurt was having such a great time and he was the one who felt completely out of his element. Honestly, he would've thought that Kurt would be the one leaning against the bar feeling awkward and he would be the one trying to convince his boyfriend to dance. The funny thing was, this wasn't Blaine's first time at a club either. Normally he could dance and enjoy himself like everyone else, but for some reason, not tonight. Granted, normally he was at said clubs because Ren was performing, but that still didn't change the fact that he usually had a good time. As it was, if it wasn't for how much Kurt appeared to be enjoying himself, he would go ahead and suggest that they leave.

For once Kurt didn't care that he had no clue how to dance when it didn't involve glee club or Broadway music; he was just enjoying moving to the music. Blaine, on the other hand, was so stiff that he looked like he was half way to doing the robot. "Blaine, relax. You look like your waiting for the sky to fall of something." Hoping to calm him down somewhat, Kurt wrapped his arms loosely around his boyfriend's neck.

It worked. Blaine all but melted into his arms. Frankly, he didn't care that it felt like a freekin' oven in there, but he did realize for the first time the reason why there were so many shirtless guys – other than to just show off, that is.

*Break*

Finally both relaxed enough to enjoy themselves, Kurt and Blaine stood next to the bar laughing and talking loudly in order to hear each other over the persistent roar of music and chatter. They were drinking something with the lowest alcohol content at the bar apart from just a soda because trying to find their way back to the hotel drunk was a prospect Blaine wanted to avoid. He didn't know about Kurt, but he knew his own alcohol tolerance left something to be desired.

Guys were constantly approaching the pair of them, but they all seemed to catch on to the fact that they were a couple fairly quick and left them in peace. What bemused Blaine the most was how Kurt seemed completely unaware of the number of men staring at him. But really, thought Blaine, it was hard not to when he was wearing pants that flatteringly tight and a shirt that low cut. Kurt's attire, however, did not change the fact that Blaine was becoming increasingly irritated with the onlookers. One group of four just couldn't seem to keep their eyes off Kurt.

After about a quarter of an hour, the member of Kurt's fan club who had been doing the majority of the staring sidled over with a self-assured air that annoyed Blaine right from the get-go. He was startlingly tall but still somehow beanpole skinny with purposefully messy brown hair streaked with bleach blond."Nice shirt."

Kurt turned to smile briefly at the man before saying, "Thanks," and turning back to his prior conversation. _Really_, thought Blaine, could there be a more stereotypically gay pickup line?

"I'm Blake. And you are..?"

Kurt paused before saying with his back still to Blake, "Kurt. And do you find some bazaar pleasure in interrupting other people's conversations, or do you just have no manors?"

Only his extreme amount of experience with stage work could help Blaine keep a straight face.

"I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you. I'll buy you a drink."

Kurt turned to face him. "I'm good, thanks. I've still got most of this one."

"Well then, I'll just have to hang around until you finish it."

With a smirk, Kurt sighed, "You're really insistent when you want to talk to someone, aren't you?"

Blake shrugged. "My friends call me Mr. Adamant because one I put my mind to something, it generally happens."

"Wow," Blaine said coolly, "Mr. Adamant, huh? You must not keep a very creative group of friends."

Kurt looked perplexedly at Blaine, confused by his sudden rudeness. Usually he was the master of dapper manors.

"What can I say? They're in law school." Blake's smile widened when Kurt laughed at his joke. "Are you sure about that drink thing? You seem like an interesting enough person to stay with for the rest of the night."

"I'm sure, but you're still welcome to hang around."

Suddenly Blaine was seeing red. It infuriated him that anyone would think Kurt that was easy. Also, how could Kurt just play along when this guy was obviously just trying to get into his pants?

"I'm Blaine, by the way," he said, wrapping his arms around Kurt's waist and kissing him very pointedly on the neck. "His boyfriend."

"Boyfriend, huh?" Blake smirked arrogantly. "Too bad. Well, if you decide to ditch the hobbit, come find me." And with that he strutted back out onto the dance floor leaving Kurt to open and close his mouth like a fish out of water. He was so confused!

Blaine released him with a hurt look and said, "We need to talk."

**Thanks for reading!**


	18. Mr Brightside

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: Have I ever mentioned that I hate writing fights? Also, I am very, VERY sorry this took so long. Between writer's block, feeling like crap, and an obsession with a w210k+ Harry Potter story, this took way longer than it should have, especially considering the first half was written on the same day as chapter 17.**

**Kudos to anyone who understands why I named this chapter **_**Mr. Brightside.**_

**Thanks as always!**

Chapter 18

**Mr. Brightside**

Kurt stared back at where Blake had disappeared into the crowd with a completely dumbfounded look.

"Okay, Kurt, I know we're both relatively new to this whole relationship thing, but this is something we have to get straight right now. I never brought it up because I didn't think I'd have to worry about it with you of all people, but I was under the impression that this was a monogamous relationship." Blaine was trying not to be mad at his boyfriend, but it was really difficult when he felt like he was only Kurt's boyfriend because there were no other options.

"Um, wait, what? Slow down. I'm really lost right now."

Blaine gestured wildly. "You just stood there and ignored me while he hit on you. Hell, you even started flirting back!"

"I wasn't flirting with him!"

"In that case, you and I have very different definitions of flirting."

Even though their argument was going virtually unnoticed in the den of commotion they were standing in, Kurt still grabbed Blaine by the wrist and pulled him out a back door into an ally to avoid any prying ears. "What is your problem? I didn't get mad at _you _when that waitress was flirting with you!"

"I never flirted back! I feel like I'm going to sound like an overly possessive bastard by saying this, but in there it felt like I was just your boyfriend until a better option came along."

"For god's sake Blaine, I wasn't flirting with him!" Kurt repeated. "You're the one I'm in love with, not some random jackass who just happened to walk up to me in a club! I didn't even realize he was hitting on me until he walked off."

"But how could you not realize?" Blaine asked, looking mildly like an injured puppy.

"Because…" Kurt hesitated and the flush of anger was replaced by a blush of self-conscious embarrassment. "I never thought there was a reason for anyone to hit on me."

That completely blindsided Blaine. "What?"

"Well, you never noticed me, um, romantically until after I sang Blackbird, and no one else has ever taken any interest in my, so why should I think that someone is hitting on me and not just being friendly? What reason do they have?"

"Wait. You don't see why someone would want to hit on you?"

"Well, Sarah wouldn't even look at me with you around, so why should I think some guy at a club was?"

"Who's Sarah? Oh, the waitress! But what does she have to do with anything?"

Kurt shrugged. "She just proves the point that when it comes to sex appeal, people are always going to pick you over me. That's just the way it is. Sexy as a baby penguin, remember?"

"Apparently baby penguins have gotten a hell of a lot sexier than they used to be if that's the case. Kurt, how can you not realize sow sexy you were in there?"

"That's a far cry from what you said a few months ago."

"You thought that I meant…" He paused trying to wrap his head around the concept. "You thought I meant that you're not sexy period? Kurt, no, that's not it! You're just not sexy when you try too hard to be sexy." The hurt and confused look on Kurt's face made Blaine realize that he was just digging himself into a deeper hole. He considered how to say what he wanted to say.

There was a fine line between sexy and awkward. Blaine could be really sexy when he tried, but when he didn't try, he was just goofy and sexy in a sloppy sort of way. Kurt, on the other hand, was awkward when he tried to be sexy. But when he wasn't trying... WOW. Then he was sexy, and he didn't even realize it!

"When you were dancing in there, you didn't care what anyone thought; you were just enjoying yourself. _Then _you were sexy. It's only when you over think things and try to force yourself to be sexy that the wheals fall off. Last night, when you didn't care about appearances or assumptions, well…" Blaine trailed off and raised his eyebrows somewhat suggestively and tilted his head to one side, hoping Kurt would get the point. "Wow."

Kurt's breath hitched audibly, and the air of the dark alley seemed to thicken exponentially.

* * *

><p>Two subway transfers and good deal of walking later, the pair were at last within four blocks of their hotel. Though he was physically exhausted, Kurt's mind was as awake as if he had just consumed five cups of coffee, three Red Bulls, a 5 Hour Energy, and a whole lot of sugar. Making out in a dark alley had never been something on his bucket list, but only now that he had done it did Kurt realize that it should have been right at the top. Well, okay, singing in the Gershwin Theater was at the top, but been there, done that.<p>

Energetic in spite of his severely chapped lips, Kurt couldn't help but turning and dancing with a good shake of his hips as they passed a convenience store that was blaring Lady Gaga's _Just Dance _through its still-open doors. Blaine watched with a bemused look as Kurt sashayed down the sidewalk, keeping his hands in his pockets so he wouldn't give in to the urge to reach out and touch the dancing boy.

Yes, Blaine thought, there was defiantly nothing even slightly reminiscent of a penguin about that boy. That is, unless penguins had suddenly become as sexy as a black jaguar.

**Thanks for reading!**

**A/N: Oh, and for those of you who asked, if you look on my profile there is a link to my Fictionpress account where I post a little bit of my original work.**


	19. Unexpected Acquaintances

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: I haven't forgotten, I promise! Between school starting back and having to wait for the screwy screen on my laptop to be fixed, it's been ages, but here you go. I went back and tried to fix some mistakes in the first thirteen chapters too. I tried to write a chapter last night, but I couldn't drag my mind out of the gutter long enough to write anything remotely appropriate to the rating or timeline of this story, so yeah…**

**I re-read the entire story, and I need you honest opinion: Did chapters 17 and 18 make sense and feel right, or did they come off too OOC or choppy?**

**Sorry this chapter is so short. I had it all planed out as to how I wanted this one to go, but then the story just had to go and right its self again, so now I have to rethink the latter half of this chapter.**

**Thank you so much for your patience.**

Chapter 19

**Unexpected Acquaintances**

"I'm so sorry," Blaine said, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his hands. "Is this getting old? It's getting old isn't it?"

It was nine in the morning, and they were sitting on a subway train as it jostled along to Greenwich Village. They knew where they were going, but they had absolutely no idea why. "No, it's fine. I kinda' like being lead around the city by your sister. And the fact that we don't know where we're going or who we're meeting just makes the whole thing that much more mysterious."

Blaine grunted in what may have been assent before saying, "Well, considering I don't think you planed to come to New York City just to be dragged around by your boyfriend's sister, you seem to be taking Ren surprisingly well. It takes most people at least two months to get used to her antics."

"Blaine, I've come to the startling realization that I could be at the DMV with you and still enjoy myself. That takes some skill."

With a look of mock astonishment, Blaine said, "You mean you'd rather have me than Patches? Mr. Hummel, you flatter me."

"You said you wouldn't bring that up ever again after I told you!" said Kurt, flushed with embarrassment at the thought of what had happened when he went to get his learner's permit.

"You went there first! But seriously Kurt, I _am_ flattered. I know how much you hate that place." The train ground to a stop, and Blaine patted Kurt lightly on the knee. "Well, time so see who our mysterious contact is. I swear, if it's another crazy homeless man…"

"_Another?_" questioned Kurt as they stepped onto the platform.

"Another. Unless, of course, it's Bubbles. Then I won't mind. What's the text say again?"

Kurt checked his phone briefly (how Ren had even gotten his number was still a mystery to him). "They'll be next to the third advertisement for NCIS, the one where someone's drawn green a mustache on Tony."

It didn't take them long to spot the right poster, mainly because it was the one attracting some degree of attention thanks to the beautiful girl leaning against the wall next to it. Her eyes widened when she saw them approaching, and she shifter her weight nervously to her left foot. "Y-you must be Ren's little brother and his boyfriend," she said in a nervous voice that was barely even audible over the hum of the passing crowd.

Kurt threw Blaine a quick glance, confirming that he was thinking the same thing. This girl's soft, anxious voice did _not _match her appearance. She was by far what most guys would consider hot: tall with long legs shown off by dark green shorts that cut off mid thigh; pretty with delicate featured dusted with a light blush and framed by perfectly straight blond locks streaked with pink; and above average with a prominent chest that seemed to be drawing quite a bit of attention.

"Um, yeah. You're the one we're supposed to be meeting?" Blaine quirked one eyebrow in surprise.

"Y-yes. Ren thought I would be able to show you a few places since I grew up in this area. You two want to go to NYU, right?" The girl's voice was still soft and faltering as she continued to fidget with a stainless steel ring set with rainbow stones she wore on her right thumb.

"Yeah, but can I just ask: Who are you? I feel like I should know you." Blaine's eyebrows met in frustration. It was driving him crazy that he felt like he should know this girl, but at the same time he was sure he'd never seen her before.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. As you can tell, I'm a bit absent-minded. Like Ren says, it's a wonder I don't just dance right off the stage more often." Catching how fast she was rambling again, she gave a nervous laugh and something that was probably supposed to be a smile but came out more as a grimace. "I'm Ren's roommate, Shelby Clonally."

**Thanks for reading!**


	20. Shelby's Story

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: By the way, if you want information on any of the places I talk about in here, just message me. I still have a lot of addresses and such.**

**Thank you for the reviews!**

Chapter 20

**Shelby's Story**

**(Monday)**

Blaine's mouth hung limply open, and it didn't take a rocket scientist to understand why. From the way Ren talked, he had expected Shelby to be the usual outgoing heartbreaker whose motto was 'screw the world,' not some shy, overly-polite girl who looked like she was barely out of high school. He thought he knew his sister better than anyone else, but this… This was a whole new thing entirely. Ren went for girls who stood out from the crowd and made their presence in a room known, not girls who stuttered nervously upon meeting her brother. In other words, she went for sexy, not cute, and while Shelby might be hot to look at, she transformed into cute as soon as she opened her mouth.

In a desperate play to break the growing silence, Kurt said hastily, "So, Shelby, you went to NYU?"

"Yeah. I graduated last fall from Tisch."

"Were you studying theater like Ren?"

"Oh, no. I can't act to save my life. Dance is my thing. I've been working with a small troupe from Tribeca ever since I graduated."

Around this time Blaine seemed to come back to reality and asked, "So, you're older than Ren? She said that you were a couple classes ahead of her."

Shelby gave another nervous little laugh. "Not really. I think I might be younger than her, actually. I graduated high school when I was fifteen. My parents call it being a genus, but I call it wanting to be out of that house. They wanted me to be an engineer, but you can see how well that went." This time her lopsided smile actualy looked like a smile. "But let's not just stand in a subway station talking. Come on."

And with that they started their grand tour of Greenwich Village. They ducked in and out of small, family run stores and boutiques, and Kurt was overjoyed to find a fashionably unique hat the likes of which he had never seen before. Eventually, they made their way onto the NYU campus. Kurt didn't even know how they'd gotten there, considering he hadn't seen anything to mark the entrance, but they were suddenly surrounded by buildings hung with waving purple flags emblazoned with the NYU torch. Shelby kept pointing out different building and spouting off random facts and anecdotes. As soon as she pulled them into the library, Kurt knew that this was where he wanted to be after high school. The library spiraled upwards for countless floors, making looking up a very dizzying experience. "Yeah, my second month here I got lost while trying to find a book I needed for a Psychology essay and spent forty-five minutes trying to get out. Finally I just had to text an upperclassman for help," she said with a sheepish smile.

After that they walked for a walked quite a ways to what Shelby called "the most amazing bakery ever". It was a very tiny store called the Magnolia Bakery so packed with people that it was almost impossible to move. "I don't suppose you can do that food order thing like Ren, can you?" Blaine asked Shelby, who shook her head.

After some not-so-organized chaos, the group made their way to a bench to eat their "lunch". Taking a bite of his red-velvet cheesecake, Blaine's eyes widened and he said, "Kurt, I'm sorry to tell you, but this could give your chocolate-chip cookies some competition for best desert ever."

Kurt shook his head. "Don't worry; if it's anywhere near as good as this banana pudding, I'm not insulted."

There was silence as they all ate until Shelby, who had been growing visibly more uneasy ever since they sat down, said, "You probably think I'm heartless for denying Ren, don't you?"

Kurt's eyes widened and he threw his boyfriend a covert glance. Blaine shook his head almost imperceptibly and said quietly, "No, I don't."

"I did it for her own good, you know. I mean, I don't want to sneak around after I've been out of the closet for five years, but that wasn't my main reason. Your parents will accept her, Blaine, even if grudgingly. They won't disown or hate her, and that's more than I can say for mine. I guess you could say that I'm a bit jealous. My parents disinherited me and stopped paying for my school when I finally worked up the nerve to tell them, so I just think she should at least take advantage of the fact that she _can_ tell hers."

It broke Kurt's heart almost audibly to hear the sadness in the blond girl's voice. For once she didn't sound young or nervous but instead old beyond her years, like she had lived through things that most people couldn't imagine. Once again he realized how lucky he was to have a supportive father.

"You two probably understand better than anyone how keeping something like that secret can eat away at someone," she continued. "Sure, I hate that I now have a fortune in school loans, but I'd rather that than have had the secret of my sexuality eating away at me this whole time. It was… It was like I had come to terms with it myself and told a few people I trusted, but every time I met someone who knew my parents or grandparents I had to put up this façade of lies. I would catch myself censoring everything I said around them, inadvertently changing the genders of the people I'd dated, lying when they asked me what school clubs I was in or what books I was reading, stuff like that. It almost drove me bat-shit crazy for a while there.

"But then I finally told them. There was yelling, throwing of vases, and a whole lot of tears, but for some reason, even after they told me not to come back home ever again and that they weren't going to pay for my education, I still felt strangely light, like all of my lies and secrets had been weighing me down for so long that I hadn't even noticed that I'd been carrying the extra weight. Whether we realize it or not, these secrets are walls that keep us apart." She paused and blushed deeply at how much of herself she'd revealed to two people who were almost complete strangers.

"I understand completely," said Blaine. "And, as much as I hate to see Ren hurting, I think you were right to refuse her until she tells them."

"I think – Well, Ren doesn't know, but I think… I think I might be falling in love with her. Please don't tell her; it'll probably just hurt her worse at this point to know that I really do love her."

Blaine didn't know what to say to this, so they lapsed into silence once more until Kurt finally thought to check his phone for the time. "Blaine, we need to get going! It's already past three, and we still have to get back to the room to get ready. We're supposed to be going to see _Catch Me If You Can _tonight."

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to keep you so long," said Shelby, pulling them towards the nearest subway station. "Oh, and if you see her after the show, can you tell Ren that I'm making fettucine alfredo tonight?"

"Uh, sure..."

As the blond dancer dashed off, Blaine said more to himself than to Kurt, "My my, aren't they getting domestic. How so... un-Ren-ish."

**Thanks for reading!**


	21. Catch Us If You Can!

**A New Side of New York**

**A/N: And no, the rating won't go up on this story. I'm not willing to bump the whole thing up to M just for one or two scenes.**

**The entire time I was writing the first half of this, I couldn't get that **_**Out **_**photo shoot out of my mind...**

**Thanks for the reviews!**

Chapter 21

**Catch Us If You Can!**

Just after they arrived back at the Hotel room, Kurt's phone started playing Single Ladies – his ringtone for Mercedes – at full blast, causing Blaine to give him an amused glance before walking to the bathroom to start getting ready. "Hello?"

'Still alive, I hear. How're you and your man doing?'

"Good. We've only tried to kill each other once, and that was just because of a communications error. It's been a blast. His sister is such a trip; I wish you could meet her. You have to come back to New York, even if just for the food. It's like everywhere you turn there's something else good to eat. I swear, I'm going to have trouble not gaining fifty pounds within my first year living here."

'Kurt, just don't even talk to be about food right now. I've been living off Ramen for the past week because Mom's out of town on business, and do you really think me and my dad have any clue how to cook? So, how are things going _romantically?_'

"Um, good? I mean, it's been the most romantic few days of my life."

'In other words, you're still a virgin.' The disappointment was evident in her voice.

"'Cedes!" Kurt squawked. "Yes, I damn well still am a virgin! What, did you really expect me to jump Blaine as soon as we got out the state?"

'Look, I'm completely love-lifeless. At this point I'm living vicariously through you, so it's in my best interest if you're getting some.'

"It's pathetic when my best friend is pressuring me and my boyfriend isn't."

'Well, I'm really glad he isn't, or I might have to kick his short ass from New York to L.A. But still, this summer's boring, and you're more entertaining than anything on TV. I mean come on, even Booth and Bones finally went there.'

"I'm hanging up now."

'You _will_ tell me if you two do go any farther, right?'

"That's for me to ponder and you to eventually find out."

Kurt hit the _end _button, successfully cutting off his best friend's cry of, 'you will, right?'

Still laughing, he knocked on the slightly ajar door to bathroom before entering to brush his teeth. He stopped dead when he saw Blaine standing in front of the mirror applying a copious amount of gel to his hair, the white dress shirt he was wearing handing open. How they had been sharing a hotel room for four nights and still had yet to see each other shirtless was a total mystery to Kurt, but wow. Kurt could barely even concentrate enough to remember that he was supposed to be brushing his teeth. Blaine's clearly defined abs and trail of thick, black hair made all conscious thought process stop.

"I take it she assumed we wouldn't be virgins anymore by the time I returned you to her?" asked Blaine with a sly smirk, forcing Kurt's brain to grind back into action.

He blushed slightly at the cumulative "we wouldn't be". Call him a romantic, but he really liked the idea of both of them being new at this. He found it romantic that his first time would also be Blai-

Ok, stopping that thought right there. A tiny little bathroom was _not _the place to let his thoughts wander to that area of thinking. It was getting to be way too much of a case of Head-In-The-Clouds-Mind-In-The-Gutter. Instead he tried so sound nonchalant as he said, "You're very lucky that Wes and David don't care about the fine details of your love life."

"Oh, you'd be surprised. For a pair of straight guys, those two can ask some really specific questions. So, do I even need to ask what your ringtone for me is?"

"Teenage Dream, what else? What's mine?"

"Silly Love Songs."

* * *

><p>It was a sobering moment when Ren pointed out via text message that the pair of them took longer to get ready than the actual cast of the show. Dressed in the fairly-formal clothes appropriate to a night at a Broadway play, Kurt and Blaine left the hotel at seven and headed for the Neil Simon Theater. Blaine, ever the dapper gentleman, insisted on holding open every door they came to while Kurt thought he might just start skipping from the pure picturesqueness of it all. He was on his way to a real Broadway play with his unbelievably charming boyfriend. What more could a guy ask for?<p>

**Thanks for reading!**

**Sorry this chapter was so short, but I swear I'll make it up to you next chapter, especially to those of you who like the more romantic parts.**


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